Not What it Seems
by crescentmoon-cat
Summary: AU. A tomboy princess with unimaginable powers and a young king out to win her heart.VH forever. What happened to Hitomi during her time on Dragon Mountain 2 years ago, and is Dilandau back"
1. Losses

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne(sob), but the plot and some of the characters are mine.

Well, here goes

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Chapter one: Losses

Hello, my name is Serenity Hitomi Kanzaki. I am the princess and future queen of Anatopia. But I'm not you ordinary princess, let alone am I the princess of your ordinary country. You see Anatopia is a safe haven for creatures that are feared or misunderstood by the rest of Geaia. There are griphons, unicorns, catpeople, dogpeople, dragons, and any other creature you could imagine. The only way to get in is if either your heart wishes to come in so deep that the spirit of the land hears it and allows your entry or if you are a guest of the royal family. 

As I said before I'm not your ordinary princess, I'm Anatopia's commanding general, the king's top adviser, and a morpher, a human with the ability to change to whatever creature they wish to be. There is one last thing you may want to know about me, I am the last of the descendents of the Atlantians so I hold the awesome power of Atlantis, yet no one knows of this but not even my father. 

**__**

~~~~~~~~~~~~And our story begins **_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

A young girl of 5 runs up to her mother, "Mother could we go and explore the rest of the forest?" she asks.

"Very well," her mother replies, "but you can't run off like last time Hitomi."

The girls rare emerald eyes light with excitement as she grabs her mother's hand and pulls her deep into the forest and unknowingly into the hands of an enemy.

"Mom! Look at this it's a baby wolf." Hitomi yells pushing her sandy blonde hair out of her face. She gentle pets the wolf making sure not to scare it. "Its fur is so soft," she whispers.

"Hitomi! Don't touch it, its mother might be around and heaven knows what she'll do when she sees you with her cub," Queen Serenity shouted. All of a sudden a howl was heard through the forest. "Oh no Hitomi let's go, hurry!" 

" I don't think so," a mysterious shadow whispered. An arrow came out of nowhere and pierced through the queen's heart killing her right away.

"NO MOTHER," screamed Hitomi, running to her mother's bleeding body, "no you can't die please mother, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she sobbed. Hitomi turned her furious eyes to the stranger. "Why, why did you do it, why."

"You're next," was the stranger's reply before a flash of fur came ripping through the air cutting the stranger's neck leaving it to bleed freely. Then the wolf fell to the ground, an arrow jutting out of her chest. "No," screamed the stranger before falling limp to the blood drenched ground.

All that was heard through the forest was Hitomi and the cub's cries for their lost mothers.

"Princess Hitomi?! Queen Serenity?! What happened, where are you? What was that screaming?" came the voices of the royal soldiers, cutting through the depressing silence.

"O Over here," whimpered Hitomi, still crying for her mother.

"Princess! What happened," gasped the soldiers in disbelief, for there lay their beloved queen, blood seeping out of her chest onto the forest ground. Beside her lay the stranger's limp body, and not far from it was the wolf's dead body as well.

"He he killed her, the wolf, it it tried to save us, but he killed her, they're all dead," was all she could utter before going into a dead faint.

Sooooooooo?! what did ya think. this is my first fanfic ever. The next chapter will be out soon i hope. if you guys have any ideas of i can add to my next chapter please email me at soccerfreek001@bolt.com. Bye!!


	2. New friends

Thanks to everyone who sent me a review so far, it's great to know that someone likes my fanfic so far. Well onto the next chapter.**^ ^**

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne but I wish I did.

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Chapter 2 NEW FRIENDS

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~~11 years later**~~**

A young woman of 16 sat on a large stone gazing over the sparkling lake in the sun's setting light, a faraway look in her eyes. Her sandy blonde hair flowing down her back to her waist, and her rare emerald green eyes hardened from the harsh years and the early heart break from the death of her mother still fresh in her mind even over the decade that passed. The sun's light making her feminine figure look as though it was that of a goddess.

****

~~Flashback**~~**

A 5 year old Hitomi wakes up in her bed 'What happened' she thought 'was it all a dream? If it was then mother is still alive!' Hitomi runs out of her room passing maids and servant, who once had such lively sparkles in their eyes but were now squashed. 'Why is everyone so sad? No, but that would mean. No she's alive, she has to be. Pushing open the throne room doors, her young eyes met a shocking sight. There in front of the royal thrones was a platform on which her dead mother's body lay. "It wasn't a dream," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes one again. There her beautiful mother lay, her normally sun caressed face was pale as the moon and her once blood red lips as blue as the deepest oceans. Hitomi walked up to her mother and grasped her hand, surprised at how cold it was. The tears that she was trying to hold back suddenly came spilling out.

"I'm sorry Hitomi," came King Aaron's cracked voice. "I wish I could bring her back, I'm so sorry."

"Da...Daddy, why won't she wake up, why daddy. I miss her so much," Hitomi sobbed as she flew into her father's open arms. 

"Oh, no," Hitomi suddenly whispered, "the baby wolf, she's all alone."

"What wolf?" the King asked, unsure of what his daughter was talking about.

" The baby wolf, her mommy died trying to save mother, where is she, is she all by herself? Please father we have to find her, she doesn't have a mother either, please."

"Hush don't cry, we will go right now," she father told her, gently stroking her little head. 

"Guards! Go get a servant to prepare us a carriage, I need two ok you to come with me, we are departing to the forest immediately," the King barked.

"Yes sire, right away!" exclaimed the guards as they ran off the complete their orders. 

"Oh thank you Daddy," sobbed Hitomi happily.

****

~In the Forest**~**

"Daddy! I found her. Over here," Hitomi yelled excitedly.

"Oh, the poor thing," Hitomi whispered as she picked up the snow white whimpering baby wolf. " Look she was all by herself."

"Would you like to make sure she is never alone again?" her father asked as he walked up beside her.

"You mean I can keep her! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you father. I love you so much," exclaimed Hitomi as she hugged the fragile creature, its sky blue eyes looking up at her. 

"I'll call her Hope," she stated proudly.

"I'm sure your mother would have liked that and her mother too," whispered Aaron.

"Oh I miss mother so much, I hope she's happy wherever she is."

****

~Back flash**~**

Over time Hitomi's broken heart healed, yet she never let anyone get too close to her anymore. King Aaron tried to spend as much time with his daughter as possible after the Queens funeral, but as the years went by he was pushed so much by his Kingly duties that he only saw Hitomi at mealtimes. 

So Hope became Hitomi's true companion, following Hitomi wherever she went never leaving her side. They were inseparable. Hope would always support Hitomi in every way a wolf could if not in more.

Hitomi grew to loath dresses, she much preferred long sleeved shirts and pants. She came to be a master of the sword at a very young age and perfected a deadly aim with the bow and arrow, far surpassing all Anatopia's soldiers. At age 15 she became the leading General of her country's army, with Hope as her second in command, which led to Anatopia's army being one of the strongest armies in Gaea.

She became the pride and joy of her people, to them having such a strong princess who could rise above all the odds and make their kingdom as great as it was was an honor. Hitomi loved her people and would spend a lot of her free time either helping the farmers and townsfolk or taking care of the children at the orphanage. To the children Hitomi was an older sister to whom they could tell their greatest secrets to and trust her not to tell. She helped them with any problems that they would have. They also all loved Hope, who spent all her time at Hitomi's side. Wolves were usually feared for their fierceness, but Hope helped to change that. 

The sandy haired woman looked up at the stars and whispered "I miss you so much mother, why did you have to leave, father is trying to get me to wed, can't he see I don't want to. All the snobbish princes he has introduced to me need to shove their egos up their asses and leave me alone. The advisors keep bugging me about having an heir for when the king dies and something should happen to me. I HATE it." not one to believe in crying Hitomi just continued to stare at the stars for a moment. 

'Hito-chan!' came Hope's wolfish voice in her head (Hitomi can talk to animals through her thoughts and vise-versa) " You must come back to the castle, have you forgotten that the King of Fanelia will be here tomorrow and you are to receive him!"

'No I haven't," Hitomi mentally sighed.

'Well then come on, your father was about to send a search party out for you'

'Fine, I'm coming'


	3. old enemies new enemies

Ok here's the deal. The Destiny War did happen but Anatopia stayed neutral and Hitomi had nothing to do with it. Escaflowne was awakened yada yada yada and so on. Millerna married Allen at the end of the war, Celena is no longer Dilandau, and Chid was never Allen's son. There might be some more stuff soon.

('Sigh' I hate doing this) - Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne and I never will.

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Chapter 3 Old Enemies and New Enemies

~Later that night**~**

" Hito-chan, could you please scratch me behind the ear, please?" asked Hope, giving Hitomi her sweetest look.

"Fine, come here," sighed Hitomi, who was lying on her bed tired form the day's events. She sat up as Hope jumped onto her bed from her rug on the ground and started to scratch Hope's snow white fur.

"Are you ok Hito-chan? You look really tired."

"I'm just tired, I wish father would quit pushing me into marriage. King Van is probably going to be another one of those stuck up, good for nothing snobby princes who only care about themselves." complained Hitomi.

"Oh come on Hito-chan, don't judge him before you even meet him. You've turned down every prince on Gaea, not caring to give any of them a chance."

"Well it gets annoying when 'every prince on Gaea' wants you for your power and body and not for who you really are. As I've told every single living soul in this kingdom **I want to marry for LOVE!!!** And anyway I've met him before at my mother's funeral."

"Well then why so much hate towards him?" asked Hope "Did he do something to hurt you?"

"He made fun of me because I was crying so much and called me a crybaby. After that we got in a fight, and he walked away with a little present from me," smirked Hitmoi, obviously quite proud of that memory.

****

~ Flashback **~**

"Oh look at the poor princess," taunted a 5 year old Van, "poor baby she's crying. I always knew girls were crybabies."

"Take that back, girls are not crybabies," screamed Hitomi, whipping tears from her eyes, "you try loosing your mother and see how that feels."

"Well at least I wouldn't act like such a baby at her funeral." retorted Van.

"I'm going to make you regret ever opening your mouth." hissed Hitomi as she walked into the empty training room and took out two small swords and threw one to Van. "Pick up the sword and lets fight or are you too chicken. You're going to wish you had never messed with me." threatened Hitomi as she got into a fighting stance.

Van picked up the sword and took a similar position. Hitomi took the first move and soon their swords were mercilessly crashing against each other's. The adults came in in time to pull a furious Hitomi off of Van who had a bleeding scratch on his left shoulder, which was for sure going to leave a scar.

"What are you doing?" screamed a shocked King Aaron.

"He made fun of me and called me a crybaby," seethed a red faced Hitomi.

"That gives you no right to fight him, go to your room and don't leave it until I send for you." barked Aaron.

"Fine, but I'm never speaking to you again," she screamed back as she ran out turning only once to see Aaron helping a bleeding Van off the ground and apologizing to King Gaou an Queen Varie.

****

~ End of flashback **~**

"I'm sure he still has it up to this day," laughed Hitomi.

"I don't even want to know what you did, but he was only five years old then, come on, people change, 11 years is a bit long to hold a grudge is it not?" smirked Hope.

"Oh shut up and go to sleep!" barked Hitomi as she pushed Hope off the bed and pulled the covers up. She began to think about the day's events.

****

~Flashback**~**

"Father I refuse to be pushed into marriage. I want to marry for love and nothing less. I will entertain King Van tomorrow but I shall not marry him!" screamed Hitomi, whose face was red from anger. King Aaron had just told her about the proposal to King Van and she was** MAD!**

"Serenity Hitomi Kanzaki! You will marry him, and that is my final word. You shall say no more of the subject," retorted Aaron who was equally as mad at that point.

"My name is Hitomi, not Serenity, Serenity was mother, have you already forgotten mother!" an outraged Hitomi screamed back, "I will never be Serenity never and as for marrying King Van, I'll kill myself first," she snapped and stormed out of the room leaving behind a very shocked council and king not once looking back.

****

~ End of flashback**~**

"Oh I need some fresh air," Hitomi sighed. She got out off the bed and stood in the middle of the room, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate. A bright green light began to shine and instead of a princess a beautiful phoenix with blood red feathers and slender form flew out the window.

"Hito-chan come back, what will your father do when he finds out about your nightly outings! You can't hide it from him forever. Hitomi come backkkkkkkkkkk," came Hope's wolfish voice in Hitomi's head.

"I won't be gone long don't worry I just need to clear my head," Hitomi thought back.

"When you get back I'm going to have your head!" Hope yelled at the barley noticeable figure of the blood red bird.

****

~ Same day in Fanalia **~**

"King Van, you must go! We have already told King Aaron that you will be arriving tomorrow we can't say no now. You're 16 years old it's about time that you got married. Please at least go and meet Princess Hitomi," begged Youhan, one of Van's oldest advisers.

"Fine tell the servants to prepare the 'Rose' (think about the 'Crusade', it's a leviship) sighed Van. All day his advisers had been begging him to just go visit the King and Princess of Anatopia. It was the largest and most powerful country in all of Gaea and a marriage to their princess would secure Fanalia's against future attacks and wars.

"Well Merle it looks like we're going on a trip," Van told Merle (after the council members left the room) who was sitting to his right at the council table looking at him with pleading eyes. Merle jumped up with delight and began to pounce all over the place.

"Yay! I finally get to see Anatopia," she squealed, she had longed to see the legendary Anatopia for many years now and was excited a the chance to finally see it. Van just slumped into his chair with a depressed sigh.

"Come on Lord Van, anyone on Gaea would love to have a chance to see Anatopia and **ANY** male would die to marry its princess.

'Anyone but me' thought Van.

"I hear they have scores of catpeople like me. It's been so long since I've seen another catperson. Aren't you excited? Why aren't you excited?" Merle asked twice curious as to why he was so glum.

"Nothing just go get packed," snapped Van not meaning to.

"So sorry Van-sama," squeaked Merle as she scrambled out of the room leaving Van alone. 

"How did I get into this," Van asked no one in particular as he rubbed his left shoulder where the scar still was.

****

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Whenever Hitomi talks to Hope or vise versa it's mentally. And I'm not sure how to spell Van's father's name so I'm sticking with Gaou. And if any of know how to spell it please tell me. 

I hoped you enjoyed it next chapter soon.


	4. meetings

I DON'T OWN ESCAFLOWNEE!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAA

' '-means thoughts 

" "-means talking

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"How did I get into this," Van asked no one in particular as he rubbed his left shoulder where the scar still was.

****

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'Hitomi come on get up! Your father wants to see you,' yelled Hope in Hitomi's head as she dodged a pillow that Hitomi sent flying at her. 'Aw come on get up early just this once, we have guests today, come on Hito-chan.' 

"Hope!(Hitomi yells this out loud)" screeched Hitomi as Hope pounced on her green king sized bed sending her flying into the air covers and all. 'Fine I'm up! get out so I can go get dressed.' 

'He wants to see you in the throne room before you go to breakfast. I'll see you later, bye.'

"Now what," mumbled Hitomi as she went to her closet and put on a pair of black leather pants and a white long-sleeve shirt, straped the Anatopian royal sword around her hips, pulled a comb through her hair, and checked to see that she still had her blood-red teardrop shaped pendant around her neck before stepping out of the room and into the hall. The hall was crowded with maids and servants running around trying to prepare the castle for the arrival of the Fanelian guests. Hitomi walked to the throne room and pushed the doors open, still upset about the arguement they had had the night before. "You wanted to see me father?" she asked.

"Yes Hitomi, I wanted to tell you that the 'Rose' won't be arriving till night fall you'll need to open the portal for them to get in and tomorrow I want you to show them around the kingdom after breakfast. Also you need to start the new training program today, I hear that Zaibach is trying to find a way into Anatopia to attack if they're successful they'll be hitting full force."

"Yes sir," 

"Good and try not to scare them away with your temper while they're here please. You're dismissed."

****

~ Later that day(night actually ^^)~

"Van-sama get up we're almost there!" yelled Merle, jumping up and down with excitement. Van reluctantly got up and went to the control room where everyone else was already assembled. 

"Finally decided to grace us with your presence I see," smirked Jason, Van's leading general and close friend.

"Shut up," barked Van.

"Hey wh's that exclaimed Merle!"

"I don't know but it looks like she's saying some sort of incantation." replied Jason "But she sure is beautiful don't you think Van? Van? Hello are you there?"

"I think he's stunned by her beauty," laughed Merle at Van's open mouth.

'Come on Hito-chan how are they supposed to get in if you don't hurry up and open the portal' yelled Hope

'I'm coming. Ok what was that incantation again'

'Hitomiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii' shrieked Hope.

'Oh yeah here goes' "Powers of the Mystics, powers of the sprits, I call upon thee to open the portal, open it I wish of thee with all my might!" called out Hitomi while cupping her hands and holding them high above her head. A blinding white light erupted from her hands opening a portal wide enough for the 'Rose' to go through.

"Van-sama did you see that? Did you see what she just did?" yelled Merle not believing her eyes.

"She must be a royal or something because only they can open the portal to let someone into Anatopia." suggested Jason equally if not more surprised.

"Please prepare for landing," called out the captain of the leviship. "We'll be at the palace in a few minutes."

"Oooooo look Lord Van is that a phoenix," squealed Merle as a majestic blood red bird flew by them. "I've never seen one before it's so beautiful, I thought they were only legend. Look there's a gryiphon there by those mountains, and there's a herd of unicorns." pointed Merle impressed by all the mystical creatures she had just seen.

"This place is incredible," replied Van, taken by how beautiful and mystical it all was.

"There's the palace," stated Jason who couldn't take his eyes off the pearl white palace. It looked as if it were made of glass like it came straight out of a faerie tale.

'Come on Hito-chan lets get back to the palace, I bet it took a lot out of you to open that portal'

'No it didn't' barked Hitomi not liking people to think her weak. 'I'll meet you back at the palace' replied Hitomi as she transformed into a phoenix and took off. 

'I think I just hit a nerve' sighed Hope as she ran back to the palace wanting to get a look at the Fanalians before going to bed. 

"Welcome to our kingdom your majesties. My name is Tereasa and I will be showing you to your rooms. Tomorrow you shall meet the King and Princess at breakfast. If you'll just follow me I'm sure you're really tired from your journey." informed Tereasa as she showed them to their rooms. She had been told by the king that she was to show them to get them and take them to their rooms for the night. 

"King Van this is your room, King Aaron's room is right across the hall," said Tereasa pointing to two wooden doors with the Anatopian crest on them, "and Princess Hitomi's is to the right of your own. Lady Merle yours is 6 doors down to the left and Sir Jason yours is 4 doors down to the right. I hope you have a good night." Tereasa curtsied as she walked away.

"Well good night Lord Van, good night Jason."

"Good night Merle" they both replied in unison.

****

~The Next Morning~

"Ahhhhhhhh I'm late, father's going to have my head!" screeched Hitomi as she ran down the hall knocking down everything and everyone in her path. "Sorry Mary, watch out Jack, get out of the way Lotus. I'm sorryyyyyyyyy." she called out not even paying attention to where she was going or the equally as late raven haired angel in her path. "Oof, I'm so sorry," she cried as she helped the stranger up, "you look familiar, have I seen you before?"

"Not from my memory,"

'Hito-channnnn!!!!!!!!! Get your butt in here your father is raging mad. If you're not in here in the next 2 minutes you will for sure loose your head. Hurry!!!' yelled Hope in Hitomi's head.

"Oh shit I'm late, I'm late, I'm late," Hitomi screamed as she ran off toward the stairs, not even bothering to go down them but to jump gracefully off the banister (or whatever you call that thing that's attached to the stairs **_***). "Sorry again," she called out to the raven haired king not even knowing he was a king.

"What a strange girl," Van murmured to himself before realizing he was even later to his own destination and took off running. 

As Hitomi reached the dinning room she stopped to regain her before remembering that she had to wear a dress, "Oh man, I can't believe I forgot." she steamed as she waved her had across her body and instead of her t shirt and pants and a royal green floor length dress appeared. " I hate dresses!" she mumbled.

'Hitomi where are you. Hurry, I don't want to see what happens if you take any longer. Your father has already gone 4 shades of red and I think he's going to pop. You are so in for it' screamed Hope.

'I'm right at the door'

'Well get in here NOW!'

Hitomi opened the dinning room doors and saw her extremely red father that looked like he was going to murder her any minute, a scared looking Merle, a smirking Jason, and a furious Hope all seated at the table. The only person missing was the King of Fanelia. 'Maybe he got eaten by a dragon' thought Hitomi hopefully.

'I don't think you'll ever be that lucky, he's right behind you' informed Hope.

'I hate my life' groaned Hitomi as she turned around to see the same raven haired stranger she had met this morning.

"It's you!" they both screamed in unison. "Who are you!" they screamed in unison yet again. "I'm Princess Hitomi." "I'm King Van" they said in unison one last time.

"Well now that the introductions have been given," mumbled Jason.

"Hitomi, why don't you take your seat," said King Aaron through clenched teeth.

"Oh sorry father," replied Hitomi and took her seat to the right of her father while glaring at a smirking Van who sat across from her all the while having an evil glint in her eyes that neither Van, Hope, or King Aaron liked.

'Please Hito-chan don't do anything you'll regret' pleaded Hope.

'Don't worry, today might be fun after all' came Hitomi's evil laugh.

'Gaea help you' sighed Hope.


	5. memories

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More background info.: Merle is 2 years younger than Van. Balgas is still alive. Also change of info. they are at the end of the Destiny War it's not completely over, and Zaibach is bothering Anatopia because it wouldn't be their ally. 

And Escaflowne is not mine

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'Please Hito-chan don't do anything you'll regret' pleaded Hope.

'Don't worry, today might be fun after all' came Hitomi's evil laugh.

'Gaea help you' sighed Hope.

________________________________________________

"Good morning Princess,"

"Hello, Hitomi,"

"How are you today Princess Hitomi," came the greetings of the townspeople. And Hitomi replied back warmly.

"Looks like our friend is well known, huh" whispered Jason to an amused Merle.

"Well it just so happens that I'd rather spend time with my people rather than some selfish prince or king," Hitomi snapped back , who heard his comment and was rather annoyed. Jason just blushed and shut his mouth, Merle laughing at him the whole time, Van the meantime just held his tongue. 

While they had their tour of the palace Hitomi had had an argument over some stuff (mainly whether a princess should be allowed to fight in war or not) and Hitomi *accidentally* pushed Van into the pond, which caused him to have to walk around in wet clothes the whole day and Hitomi to get a tongue-lashing from Hope. Van had smartly decided not to say anything and get revenge on Hitomi later. They were now going through the market place and the rest of the kingdom. 

"This is the orphanage and where I take my leave," came Hitomi's voice.

"Hey what about the rest of our tour," demanded Merle.

"Well you're a beast person so you should have no problems. You can mentally talk to Hope and translate for the others, she knows Anatopia as good as I do. I hope you enjoy the rest of your tour. When you finish I will most likely be in the training arena training the soldiers. Good bye." answered Hitomi as she began to walk toward the orphanage door.

'Please Hope, I promise I'll make it up to you later' Hitomi mentally begged Hope.

'Fine, but you better hope your father doesn't find out or you're dead. I'll see you at the palace, but...' the conversation was cut off by 2 little squealing voices coming from the orphanage door.

"Hito-chan!"

"Tomi!" cried two little children, one a blond haired blue eyed girl and a black haired brown eyed boy. They ran up to Hitomi and grabbed onto her legs preventing her from moving.

"Hi Iris, Daren. How are you two doing today?" she asked smiling as she bent down and picked them both up and turned back to a confused Merle, "I'm sure Hope will explain everything, I'll see you soon." She then walked into the orphanage, leaving three dumbfounded people.

'Well, shall we begin where we left off' Hope asked Merle.

'Wh.. Who are you? What are you doing in my head' demanded Merle unnerved by the voice.

'It's me Hope we better finish were we left off or your tour'

'This will take some getting used to. Why can you only talk to beast people' asked Merle.

'Let's just say that I'm not what I seem, that's all you need to know for now'

*~~4 hours later~~~~~*

"All right move it, move it, move it! It's no time to be lazy, move your butts, how can you call yourselves an army, a group of babies could beat you. Come on move those legs. Jaggers jump through that fire loop higher, you'll catch your clothes on fire and you won't be saving anyone, not even yourself. Millers crawl under those wires faster, how are you supposed to sneak up on Zaibach if you can't get through a simple trap. Adam look out for that step it's booby trapped can't you see, open your eyes." ordered Hitomi as she walked through the training arena correcting the soldiers' new training exercises.

"Princess, your father wishes to see you," called Lisa, one of Hitomi's generals.

"Ok Lisa, but how many times do I have to tell you to call me Hitomi, get it right next time or else," joked Hitomi.

"Sir yes sir Hitomi," laughed Lisa giving a mock salute.

"Watch these oafs for me while I'm gone will you, they've got a long way to go before they'll get anywhere."

"Ok, good luck with your father, everyone knows about your little confrontation at breakfast today and your father and his advisers are steaming mad,"

"Thanks, bye"

*~~Back to our three Fanelians and wolf. 4 Hours later~~~~*

'Gosh you sure can shop' breathed Hope as she was EXHAUSTED from how much Merle could shop in one day, not really used to it since Hitomi HATED shopping of any kind except for weapons.

'Well you need to get to know me better huh.' Merle mentally remarked, finally getting used to Hope's voice in her head.

"Merle are you done yet? Jason and I are starving. If you would be so kind as to ask Hope for a good place to eat we'd be much obliged." snapped a tired and annoyed Van.

"Sorry," squeaked Merle, "I didn't notice how fast the time went. You're right, I'm hungry too."

'Let's go to the Mystic Rose. It's is a pretty good place and they have really good deer meat there.' suggested Hope licking her chops.

"The Mystic Rose it is" cheered Merle already starting off down the road after Hope.

"Girls!" muttered Jason, "does she ever get tired? I swear I'm going to fall down any minute if I don't sit down soon."

"Hold on were almost there," replied Van.

"Mmmmmmmmmm, that was so good." exclaimed Merle not even aware of the staring trio.

'Sure can eat can't ya?' snickered Hope.

"Hey I didn't eat that much," snapped Merle, not noticing she said it out loud.

"Well I think 5 plates of meat and rice would be considered a lot." chided Jason.

"You just shut up Jason, at least I didn't act like a pig once we started eating, look at the food all over the place."

"Hey! that was your doing"

"Was not"

"Was too"

"not"

"too"

"NOT"

"TOO.."

"SHUT UP!!" yelled Van.

"Gosh Van you didn't have to yell," scolded Merle, rubbing her ears. (Hope does a little anime sweat drop)

'Well that was the only way to get through your bickering' replied Hope.

'Who asked you' barked Merle.

*~~~Back to Hitomi~~~~~~~~*

"Yes father?" asked Hitomi after she walked into the throne room and kneeled in front of the king. 

"Rise Hitomi, why are you not with our guests, where are they?" King Aaron asked, alarmed at what his daughter could have done out of her short temper.

"Don't worry father," Hitomi quickly replied as she stood up, "I left them with Hope. They should be Ok. Hope is not what she seems, they're safe with her."

"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it, huh" he sighed.

"Looks like you have no choice," muttered Hitomi more to herself than her father.

"Care to repeat Hitomi?" asked an annoyed king.

"No sir,"

"Well then how is the training program going?"

"It's moving along nicely sir. With your permission I ask to take the troops into Dragon Mountain where they will have to survive on their own for a 1/2 rotation of the Mystic Moon. Lisa and I shall accompany them and oversee that no one meets their end there." asked Hitomi in a monotone voice, no tinkling of emotion in it.

"Permission granted. You shall leave in 7 days. Dismissed." 

Hitomi bowed and left the throne room.

"Whatever happened to my little innocent Hitomi" sighed Aaron, his heart breaking at how suddenly his daughter was forced to grow up.

"Years of war and self blame for not preventing her mother's death, your majesty," replied Lisa, who came in to see what had taken Hitomi so long.

"Lisa you have been told 100's if not 1000's of times not to call Hitomi and me majesty. To us you are a part of the family and do not need to be so formal,"

"Thank you sir, I better head back before Hitomi has MY head for leaving the troops unsupervised. Good day sir"

"You too Lisa,"

*~~Back to the wonderful four at about midday~~*

'Hope why is Hitomi so distant from everyone' asked Merle as she twirled a flower with her paw. After splitting up the argument they had gone to Weeping Goddess Lake and decided to take a rest.

' Well I don't know if I should be the one to tell you, but I might as well, I doubt Hitomi will. 

After her mother's funeral she began to blame herself for her mother's death and my mother as well. She took me in and treated me more like a sister than a pet. She was determined to make herself stronger so as to never let anyone hurt her like that again. The few people she let in she made sure to never let them out of her sight for too long afraid that they would get shot too.

She began training privately with one of the soldiers, because she knew her father would object. How she persuaded the soldier to teach her I doubt I'll ever know, not that I really want to. When she turned 9 she was able to surpass the soldier with the sword as well as bow and arrow. Although soon her father got wind of her 4 years of private training. At first he was outraged and almost had the soldier executed, but Hitomi stopped him before that happened and rewarded the soldier greatly. She made I guess you'd say a bargain with her father that if she were allowed to have a swordsmaster to help improve her skills to their peak she would bring Anatopia's army to the top. At the beginning Aaron thought it was all a joke and allowed her to do it thinking she would give up in a short amount of time, but soon he saw how well she was improving and how determined she was. He got her many swordsmasters to train her only to find out she could surpass the skills of practically every one of them by the age of 12. Everyone was truly impressed.

After her 13th birthday, Hitomi disappeared' Hope stuttered, pain and sorrow etched in her voice, 'she disappeared for about 12 rotations of the Mystic Moon (if you haven't figured it out each rotation is a month.) No one knew where she went. Everyone was depressed, the land became dead and barren the people heart broken and angry, the animals stayed in their homes never leaving all sad at the crisis. It was as if the spirits of Anatopia themselves were weeping over her disappearance. 

King Aaron sent out 100s of search parties to try and find her, no one was really sure how or when she disappeared. Many of the neighboring countries were willing to help in the search, you probably heard rumors about it.' Hope had to stop to regain herself because of all the raw emotions coming back, also making Merle feel sad, 'Close to when they were going to declare her dead she turned up deep in the dangerous outlands of Anatopia in which the evilest of creatures lived. She was bruised and beaten and practically dead, no one knew how she survived so long on her own. It took her a year to open back up to me even the littlest bit like before but whatever happened no one will ever know. She refuses to talk about it, even now, it left some sort of scar on her soul that will never go away. She became more closed up, independent, more detached from everyone, no longer radiating life around her like before. Something happened, something that scared her, something that no one will ever be able to understand.' (Merle has been translating for Van and Jason the whole time ^_^)

"I'm so sorry," Merle whispered out loud close to tears herself, still trying to absorb everything.

"She seems just fine to me," smirked Jason, replaying the water incident earlier that day.

'You'll see what I mean later today at dinner and such. She's really good at covering up her feelings, she doesn't like anyone to see her weak or dependent on anybody. To her if there's no pain, then no gain.' replied Hope to Merle who translated to Jason.

"I wonder if we'll ever know what happened," thought Van out loud. 

"Van you're the last person she'd ever tell anything to," laughed Jason.

"Come on we'd better head back," stated Merle who had been silent that whole time.

~Back to Hitomi~

"Listen up troops," barked Hitomi, gaining the attention of every person there, the soldiers all stopped what they were doing and stood in a straight line in front of Hitomi.

"In 7 days every one of you will be going on quest into Dragon Mountain in which you shall have to survive 1/2 a rotation of the Mystic Moon on your own," she was cut off by the nervous murmurings of the soldiers, who had heard terrifying stories of the mountain and didn't really want to go there, the very place that the princess had been found 2 years ago.

"Silence!" barked Hitomi, "Everyone will need to pack a bag of bare necessities. A change of clothing, sword, bow and arrows, food, and one thin blanket. On the mountain there will be various traps set all over the place in which you shall have to learn to avoid, wild animals and demons you will have to fight off, dragons that you'll need to avoid, and last but most likely not least surviving there all on its own. I will place you in different places all along the mountain, you'll have to find and help one another if you care to survive, team work is also an important skill you shall all need to learn thoroughly. Lisa and I will be scouting and spying on all of you the whole time, another thing you shall need to learn to do is be able to catch a spy hidden beyond your sight. If you are able to catch one of us you shall be given a clue that will improve your chance of survival. Make sure to wear the right type of clothing, and pack foods that you will be able to easily carry and prepare, though you will have to depend on your skills to find and catch edible foods while out there. Now back to your training and heed my warning, be prepared to expect the unexpected. Dismissed." cautioned Hitomi before going back to watching and helping the soldiers train.

Van and company had arrived just in time to hear her speech and were shocked by it.

'Hitomi are you sure, a lot of them will surly die, you can't be serious!' screamed Hope in Hitomi's head causing Hitomi to slightly wince.

'Don't worry, I'll be out there with them. I'll make sure they make it out alive, calm down Hope, honestly you're becoming too soft'

"She's right though your majesty," replied Merle (one last time "" means talking out loud '' means in thought. **_***)

"Call me Hitomi, and I know what I am doing thank you," replied Hitomi dryly. " I suggest we head back to the castle to wash up it's about time for dinner." facing back to the soldiers, "Troops you're dismissed, you'll meet back hear tomorrow at sunrise I suggest you get some rest tonight you'll need it."

~Hitomi's room before dinner~

'Hitomi please you can't do this, it's reckless, irresponsible, you just can't its suicide. Please listen to me,' begged Hope.

'Hope it's no use arguing, you're coming too anyway so there's nothing you can do about it, unless you want to stay behind.'

'No! yet I get the feeling that this doesn't have to do with just training the soldiers, you want to get away from Van don't you, or maybe something to do with why you disappeared those 2 years ago,' suggested Hope lightly.

'Hope drop it I said that no one is to talk about it and you will respect my wishes, got it' Hitomi barked, her temper beginning to rise. All of a sudden there came a shy knock at the door much to Hope's relief.

"Come in," shouted Hitomi. She heard the door open and turned around to see a barley frightened Merle.

Merle entered the room, a bit disturbed by the shout. She opened the door and was not at all surprised at the way the room was decorated. All along the walls were swords and bows of different kinds. A big canopy bed in the center, with green and blue covers and pillows, a beautiful phoenix with a rose in the background, the Anatopian crest, engraved into the head and foot board. A smaller circular shaped bed at the foot of it. A large closet that was partly open in which Merle could see many pants and shirts yet no sign of any dresses. The room looked more like a training room than a bedroom. There was a large space in the center of the room, where in Merle's opinion Hitomi probably practiced her sword fighting. There was also a door leading to a large balcony facing the inner gardens of the palace and another leading to a bathing chamber. 

"Hitomi, um, I was wondering if we could talk a little bit, get to know each other." stuttered Merle before noticing Hope silently leave the room. " I also wanted to apologize for earlier today, it was none of my business to say that."

"There's no need to apologize, sit down" replied Hitomi pointing to a chair beside the bed. 

"Thank you, I know you probably won't be happy but Hope told us about the time when you disappeared and well I would like to be your friend, that is if you'll let."

"Sure, if you want," answered Hitomi, a bit shocked. The girls spent the rest of the time before dinner talking, all tension in the room gone.


	6. hate

Hi I'm back, sorry it took so long. I got a writer's block and couldn't decide what to write. I'm doin it from my head.

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, wish i did though.

______________________________________________

"Sure, if you want," answered Hitomi, a bit shocked. The girls spent the rest of the time before dinner talking, all tension in the room gone.

*~~~~~*

''Come on, come on. I can do this'' Hitomi whispered to herself as she concentrated, a small green light beginning to form between her cupped hands. Suddenly the small light began to get bigger and bigger....

Van was walking around the palace thinking about many things, a certain princess to be exact. Princess Hitomi truly confused him. It seemed as though she was afraid of the whole world yet so defiant of it. When he first saw her the day that she opened the portal for them to enter he thought her to be a goddess, she had a beauty he had never seen before. Sure he had seen women just as beautiful but it was through makeup, yet she had a natural beauty, as though she was part of nature itself. When he looked into her emerald green eyes he felt like he could drown in them. He really wanted to get to know her. 

What suprised him the most about her was the way she acted toward her father, not like father and daughter more like king and loyal warrior. Dinner had only proved that thought more.

~Flashback~

Everyone was already seated at the dinning table when Merle and Hitomi came in. Hitomi immediately went to her father and bowed slightly to him before sitting down to his right. (Van was sitting to his left and merle beside Van)

"Now that you're here Hitomi we can begin," replied King Aaron indirectly stating it was time to eat.

"I'm sorry we were late sire," Hitomi calmly apologized looking straight into his eyes, never leaving them until she finished speaking and began to eat.

"Apology accepted. Now we must talk about the journey to Dragon Mountain. There is a change of plans, I have asked King Van to accompany you and he has kindly said yes." which was true, King Aaron had asked Van to only a few minutes before dinner hoping the king would protect his beloved daughter even though it was without her consent. Hitomi's head immediately snapped up at the statement and he could hear shocked gasps coming from Merle and his advisors. Van was able to get a look at her eyes and what he saw was truly frightening. Hitomi's eyes were so full of untamable fire and rage hot enough to burn, if possible, the person they pierced through alive, the thought of her father thinking that she would need the protection of a good-for-nothing snobbish king made her blood boil.

"Father you did no such thing, not without my consent. I will not look out for a weakling on the journey. I'm going to be there to train not protect. I'm sure his country wouldn't want to loose him, he will not come," she hissed trying yet almost failing to hold in her deadly temper. Van could have sworn that her eyes were beginning to glow a dangerous red at that moment.

"It is the king's decision your highness, we can do nothing to change it, yet I'm sure Jason would be more than happy to accompany him," suggested Youhan. Hitomi could see Jason slightly pale yet agreed to go, which only made her madder since now she'd have to look out for 2 snobbish losers.

King Aaron having seen Hitomi's argument coming replied, "Yes I did, and you shall not argue with me, I don't want you to come back beaten like last time. I don't want to see that again," and in a whisper only Van, Hitomi, Merle, Jason, and Hope could hear, "Please I can't bare to have you come back dead, I do love you my daughter." This plea truly threw Hitomi back leaving her speechless, giving the only choice as to consent. Dinner went on uncomfortably, Hitomi never looking up from her plate and if she did it was only to glare at her father and Van.

~ End of Flashback~

Van knew that she wasn't too happy about that or let alone seeing him again, not after what happened all those years ago. He sighed and ran a hand through his unruly raven hair, agitated by those annoying thoughts. When he passed by the training room he saw a bright green light flash through the ajar door. Surprised he quietly opened the door a bit more and peered in, shocked at what he saw, he forced himself to remain calm. There in the middle of the pitch black room, except for the green light allowing Van to get a clear look, stood Hitomi, yet it was not her. She was changing before his very eyes yet she didn't notice her him since she had her eyes closed, her face bent toward the ground, concentrating, as it seemed, with all her effort. 

Her mid back length sandy blonde hair suddenly became waist length with golden streaks going through it tied in a strange knot at the top of her head. Her clothes, which were a green long sleeve shirt and black pants, changed into a black silk shirt with golden and silver armor on top of it, only its long sleeves shown followed by black gloves that started at the wrist. On the armor a blood red phoenix flying out of flames extended from high on the chest to below the ribcage perfectly outlining every curve of her upper body. Silver and gold outlined armor also covered her shoulders and arms. She had black leather pants which outlined her hips and thighs, and boots starting a few inches above her knees. A green sash appeared at her hips holding the royal Anatopian sword. The armor outlined all her curves perfectly allowing her free movement. To Van she was truly an image even in the armor.

Van could not stop himself from letting out a soft gasp, causing Hitomi to immediately look up and open her eyes allowing Van to get a clear look at her face. Her pale face appeared to be the same, but when he saw her eyes he was truly stunned. Instead of bright emerald green eyes, they were completely golden, the only light in the room. (you know how evil monsters eyes usually glow white or red or something, well hers are golden) It was as if she was possessed. Which frightened Van, not that he was one that was easily frightened.

All of a sudden her eyes dimmed back to their normal green and Hitomi collapsed to the ground, her limp body still claded in the armor and clothes. Van ran to her side and gently cradled her delicate frame in his muscular arms, not sure why, yet out of instinct. Then without warning he was hit with visions, no more like memories. 

*~Flashback~*

"Mother," wept a 5 year old Hitomi, "come back please. Mother please, why did you leave me. Don't you love me any more, don't you want me? I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. If I hadn't run off like that you wouldn't be dead." It was the day of the funeral, after Hitomi was sent to her room for fighting Van. It took everything she had to keep from crying the whole day and finally her 5 year old body couldn't hold it in anymore. 

Hitomi's head shot up when she heard a whimpering coming from under her bed. She wiped her tears, got off the bed, and looked under it. There in the farthest corner lay the baby wolf, whimpering for its lost mother and loneliness. Hitomi's young heart softened at the sight of the scared baby. She crawled under the bed and gently took Hope into her arms, wiggling back out from under the bed.

"Shush little Hope, its ok. We can be friends; I'll take good care of you. I promise."

'Really,' asked a shy and hopeful voice in Hitomi's head.

"You can talk," awed Hitomi, not at all afraid.

'You can understand me, you're the first human that could. I want to be your friend, we can be sisters, since we have a lot in common.' she stated sadly

'I'd like that' squealed Hitomi in her head finally understanding how.

*~Flash~*

'So that's how they met' thought Van to himself.

'King Van'

"Who are you, come out coward," yelled Van startled by the voice, his fingers automatically going to his sword at his hip.

'There's no need to be calling names your majesty. I'm here to guide you.' the voice responded with an amused tone.

"What do you mean guide me, who are you?'' Van demanded.

'You are so rash. Just calm down and I'll explain everything. In a way I'm part of Hitomi's heart. Her true heart that she locked away on that sad day, never to let me free again. Yet she may soon free me without knowing it.' 

"What do you mean? Tell me"

'I sorry young one, I can't let that out or it will change the course of fate. All that I came here to do is show you Hitomi's life through her eyes, her pains, sorrows, and rare happinesses. You shall see things that she would never let anyone else know about, things that torture her every thought and dream. Yes you are the one.'

"What are you talking about? This is just a dream, it isn't true!"

'I'm sorry young king, this you are required to see and know. Now follow me.'

Van unconsciously began to follow the voice, not having much control over his body.

*~Flash~*

3 months after the funeral of her mother, Hitomi's heart was slowly mending. One day Hitomi was out in the gardens with Hope, when all of a sudden she was hit with a vision and collapsed limply to the ground. Hope rushed over to her to see if she was alright only to find her unconscious, deep within the depths of her mind.

~Vision~

"Go and retrieve the young princess of Anatopia and do not fail," hissed a snake like voice.(guess who, I'll give ya a clue it starts with a D. It's Dornick **^_^**') "Call one of our spies in Anatopia to find her and report back to me."

"Yes master," replied a silver haired boy.(who else but Dilandau)

~Flash~

"Master the princess was found,"

"Excellent,"

"But the queen was with her, Ivan desposed of the queen, but when he was about to get the girl Nanakia of the Wolf Spirits' tribe stopped him with her own life. She killed Ivan in the process taking an arrow in the heart."

"I should have know that bastard tribe would have something to do with it. Well did you get the girl at least?" Dornick shouted, outraged at the interference.

"No sire, she got away. The Anatopian soldiers got to her before one of our other spies could. Nanakia also left an infant child behind her which the girl has taken in. She will probably be used by the Wolf tribe to watch over the princess Hitomi and inform the elders of any odd happenings."

"How could you have messed up like that. Now all of our plans are ruined. We must have the girl to get the Fate Alteration Machine to work. Get her at all costs. I don't care how long it takes just bring her to ME!"

"Yes master," Dilandau replied as he bowed and left the room, a smile forming at his lips eager to spill more blood of his enemies on his hands.

~End of Vision~

Hitomi woke up in the infirmary 2 days later truly scared by what she had seen, not knowing what it had meant yet knowing it was important.

~Flash~ 

"I don't understand, why do they need Hitomi for the Fate Alteration machine? What's so special about her?"

"Young king have you not heard of the prophecies of the Anatoian monarchs let alone Anatopia itself? Because if you had you would know that the monarchs of Anatopia all had Anatopian blood. Hitomi is the last of the Atlantians and the most powerful of them all. She has all of their powers stored deep within her, she has yet to awaken them. They're planning to use Hitomi to awaken her powers for their own evil purposes"

"Surly that's not true, I've heard of those legends yet I always believed them to be fantical never true. My mother used to tell me them as bed time stories when I was younger," Van's voice faltered as memories of his deceased mother came hurling towards him.

"I miss her as well young one yet you must learn to move on, she would have wanted it that way."

"You knew my mother, how, who are you?" demanded Van, startled by her statement.

"Oh young one we knew each other well, almost like sisters. She wasn't meant to disappear. I still believe her to be alive no matter what anyone should say."

"So you know what she was don't you?" sighed Van, "What I am. Demons?"

"Never dear, you two have the purest souls I have ever seen. You are not alone in this world young one, there are more like you, you just need to find them. You may even find love through one of them," giggled the voice.

"Where would I find them, who are they," Van questioned wanting no more riddles but straight answers. (Van is so full of question isn't he)

"This I can not tell you yet I can show you,"

~Flash~

2 months before the queen is shot, in the royal gardens.

"Mother, what are Draconians? Why do people say they're so bad?" asked a 5 year old Hitomi as she ran over to her mother, who was sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, and sat in her lap.

"Why do you ask Hitomi?" asked Serenity, wanting to know where the question had come from all of a sudden.

"Well Lisa said that her mom said that she heard Mrs. Tibbits say some stranger said that they were cursed and the queen of Fanelia (Hitomi will from now on call her aunty) would someday bring destruction to all of Gaea. I think that that's just dumb. Aunty isn't cursed, she's nice and gives good presents."

"That she does dear, that she does. Hitomi, Draconians are ancient people who brought peace to all of Gaea thousands of years ago, but later almost destroyed it because they loved power too much. They are powerful people with beautiful white wings. But they soon got into war with the Atlantians, an ancient group even older than the Draconians, they used to be in peace but soon both groups began to get hungry for more power. They fought for hundreds of years and in the end all the Draconians went to the Mystic Moon to live and never return to Gaea. The few remaining Atlantians came and made Anatopia where all creatures could live in peace."

"Then how come they say Aunty is a Draconian," asked Hitomi, confused.

"Well your Aunty had heard a prophecy from one of the ancients saying that she'd meet her true love on Gaea at Angel Lake. (you know the lake that they met at, I'm not sure what its name is so I'm going with Angel Lake) So she went there and met Van's father and they feel in love and soon got married. Then they had Van and Folken."

"How come I never got to see Van and Folken?"

"Well they never had time to come, I'm sure you'll see them in a few months dear."

"Are the Atlantians powerful and have beautiful wings?"

At the question Queen Serenity hesitated to answer, pushing some of her long silvery hair behind her ear, "Yes, they were very powerful and had wings, their wings are the purest of white except for the gold and silver colors at the tips of the feathers,"

"Wow!! So do you and me have them too? We're Atlantians too aren't we?"

"Yes, but we're not as powerful as we used to be, your father isn't an Atlantian and neither was mine so you aren't a complete Atlantian. The power of the descendents of the Atlantians became weaker with each generation. And as for the wings.." Queen Serenity put Hitomi on the ground and stood up. She closed her eyes and concentrated giving a quick push and beautiful white wings came out of her back(she has an open back dress and when they do have their wings out their clothes don't tear) with the golden and silver tips. Hitomi gasped and ran to her gently putting her right hand on one of the wings and ran her hand along one of the majestic feathers, marveling at how soft they were.

"Can I do that too?"

"Yes you can, just close your eyes and concentrate really hard. Look deep in your heart and find the light inside. Grab it and use it to push really hard from your back." Hitomi did exactly what her mother said and all of a sudden Hitomi had her own pair of miniature pure white wings. She squealed in delight and touched her wings, eager to see if they were real. 

"When do I get to start flying? When, when, when?!!"

"I'll show you soon enough dear, come on lets go inside to lunch,"

~Flash~

'See young one you're not alone, you just have to get her to open up to you. I wish you luck. Good bye'

"Wait, please tell who you are? I need to know,"

'I am the previous queen of Anatopia.' then all of a sudden a bright light began to shine where Van had last heard the voice and a figure emerged out of it. She had waist length silver hair, beautiful blue eyes, and an air of elegance all around her. The crown of Anatopia sat majestically on her head. Queen Serenity of Anatopia stood before Van.

"Your majesty I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you." apologized a shocked Van.

'You weren't supposed to young one, there is no need to apologize, now go Hope is really worried about you,' with that Queen Serenity disappeared and Van was thrown into a pit of darkness. 


	7. surprises

Hey, Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! 

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne but I do own Hope, Jason, Lisa, Youhan, Teresa, Nanakia, and some more that are coming soon.

~Last Time on NOT WHAT IT SEEMS~

'I am the previous queen of Anatopia.' then all of a sudden a bright light began to shine where Van had last heard the voice and a figure emerged out of it. She had waist length silver hair, beautiful blue-green eyes, and an air of elegance all around her. The crown of Anatopia sat majestically on her head. Queen Serenity of Anatopia stood before Van.

"Your majesty I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you." apologized a shocked Van.

'You weren't supposed to young one, there is no need to apologize, now go Hope is really worried about you,' with that Queen Serenity disappeared and Van was thrown into a pit of darkness.

______________________________________________

'Oh what am I going to do now, Hitomi is gonna kill me for even letting him in. I hope he's ok, why won't he get up? What HAPPENED?!' were the questions running through Hope's head at the moment. Everyday she guarded the door while Hitomi trained to control powers and put them together to create the ultimate fighting warrior. The servants tended to stay away from the old training room because Hitomi had cast a spell to make it seem like the room was haunted by the spirits of long dead soldiers.

Hope always came in about this time to make sure the powers didn't hurt Hitomi too bad, although Hitomi was usually knocked unconscious and would later wake very disheveled and dizzy by the force of the power that it took to reach that form. But today Hope had to run off early to make sure Merle didn't get into the room. She thought that no one would come through this corridor, yet now she knew she was mistaken, because there lay the young king of Fanelia unconscious beside her princess. Hope was afraid of what he had seem while she was away, and with the fact that Hitomi lay there in the newly achieved ultimate form, she knew that it wasn't going to be easy trying to explain it all to him.

'Hitomi? Hitomi! Come on please get up, don't do this to me. Oh, king Van get up, get up!' she shouted to them.

"Oooh, Merle go away, my head is killing me," replied Van before he suddenly remembered what he had seen only moments ago. Van quickly jumped to his feet and looked around him. Seeing how dark it was in the room he walked out the door and came back in seconds later with a torch from the hall and placed it in one of the stands in the large room. He turned around once he could see and noticed a very worried Hope and an unconscious Hitomi. Then he noticed that Merle was no where to be seen and there was no way for Hitomi to yell at him, which left Hope 'She can't be the one that yelled could she?' he asked himself. 'I have got to be loosing it' then looking at Hope and thinking it wouldn't hurt to try he mentally asked, 'Hope were you the one that just shouted.'

'Yes Hitomi, are you feeling alright? you know that I can talk to you.' replied Hope before noticing that Hitomi was still unconscious and then looking at the brownish-red eyed king 'You can hear me can't you!' she screamed.

'It seems so,' sighed Van the whole while rubbing his head (get it? she screamed it hurt his head, oh never mind)

'Oh how could I have been so stupid? You have dragon's blood, so you should be able to understand me; you never did before because I never directed my thoughts at you,'

'That's nice to know, Now what do we do about her highness over there?' asked Van tilting his head toward the unconscious Hitomi.

'Well, um, oh I guess it won't hurt to tell you. I usually transform to my human form and use my aparathy powers to transport her to her room.'

'I don't really want to know right now could you just do it?' he exhaled running a hand through his unruly hair.

'Very well'

Hope began to glow a blinding white light which was being emitted from her chest. Her slim wolf form began to change to that of a young woman about Hitomi's age and height just barely reaching at Van's chin. Her white fur began to get shorter and turned a pale pink, her form altered from 4 legs to an upright figure on two legs, her snout shrank to a pointed human nose, her front legs formed into 2 slender arms. She had waist length white hair, with silver streaks running through it. Her white-silvery bangs covered her blue silver tinted eyes. Around her neck in the exact spot from where the white light was given off only a second ago a simple necklace with a silver chain and a diamond on the end of it appeared. Her clothes were a loose white shirt with long sleeves that formed into a triangle shape at her palms and on the top of her hands and black leather pants with knee high black boots. What gave her off to be part of the Wolf Spirits tribe were the three long silver scratch marks that ran across her pale right cheek.

'She is beautiful but Hitomi is much more beautiful' thought Van before mentally slapping himself for saying such a thing.

"I'm glad you think that Van although I doubt Hitomi would want to hear it," came Hope's amused laugh, her blue eyes twinkling. The comment caused a bit of a blush to appear on Van's checks. "Now could you please pick Hitomi up and stand beside me?" Van did as she asked, marveling at how light Hitomi was even with all the armor on. He loved how peaceful and serene she looked, with her honey colored bangs covering her closed eyes and her usually determined and tense features relaxed. 'Oh you've got to stop thinking like that Van' he chided to himself, not noticing Hope's smug look. Once Van picked Hitomi up, Hope closed her eyes and began to recite some incantations that Van somehow knew where in Atlantian. The 3 scratch marks and the crystal on Hope's necklace began to glow and swirls of silver light started to surround the 3 figures. Van looked at the swirling streaks of silver in amazement and before he knew it he found himself in a barely lit room. 

"Please place her on the bed," instructed Hope, her slender finger pointing to a large canopy bed. Van walked over and placed her down on the bed and took a look around the room. As Merle, when she came into Hitomi's room, he wasn't surprised at the way it was decorated. In a way it portrayed Hitomi, dark, mysterious, secretive, and warrior-like with all the swords and bows and arrows hung all around on the walls.

"I guess I have some explaining to do don't I?" sighed Hope pulling out two chairs beside Hitomi's bed for them to sit on. 

"I sure wouldn't mind if you did." replied Van, sitting down.

"Oh, where to start," thought Hope out loud, "I wouldn't doubt that you saw some of Hitomi's memories since she was in a very unstable state when you found her, that has happened with me, yet how many or how deep they were I don't know. I'm guessing that you already know that I'm part of the Wolf Spirits tribe from the scratch marks if not from the visions." Van nodded at her guess, "But do you know of our history or powers?" at this Van shook his head. "Well, I guess I'll start from the beginning then. The Wolf Spirits tribe is a tribe of magical people who were given necklaces like the one that I'm wearing from the Atlantians thousands of years ago. The necklaces increase our powers and also give us the ability to transform into wolves. They were feared throughout Gaea after the war between the Atlantians and Draconians because they had aided the Atlantians with their powers, acting as spies and assassins. After the wars, Atlantis was destroyed so the Atlantians created Anatopia and invited them and any other creatures affected by the wars to go with them, while the Draconians created the Mystic Moon and left Gaea forever give a few who decided to stay. My necklace was passed down to me from my mother and from her mother before her."

"What does all this have to do with Hitomi though?" asked a confused Van.

"Well," replied Hope, playing with a strand of her silvery hair, "the day that Queen Serenity was killed, the assassin was really there for Hitomi. You probably already know how my mother saved her, but why is what I need to answer. My mother and Hitomi's knew each other for years; when they were mere children I should think. They met because the Ancient Ones believed that Queen Serenity was the one that the Prophecy of the Phoenix spoke about, my mother was sent to support and aid Serenity into finding the true powers of the Atlantians."

"What do you mean Prophecy of the Phoenix, I never heard of it before."

"**'The One of pure Atlantian blood shall arise from the heat of the Dragon and win his love. They shall be tested through many hidden tests and if their love should suffice to that of the utmost supreme of sacrifices the Dragon and Phoenix shall become one and reach the ultimate form. They shall defeat those of evil and bring peace to all the lands. But the land of the Phoenix shall not survive. Yet should the Phoenix be led astray she shall bring death and destruction to all creatures of life, of death, of good or of evil. The Dragon will die of heart ache causing them both to die perish, for they are soul mates and feel each other's pains.****'" stated Hope, her eyes becoming distant.**

"But it wasn't Queen Serenity, was it?" asked Van, quickly glancing over to the unconscious Hitomi.

"No it wasn't, yet they still stayed friends and kept in touch over the years. Now back to where we were. The day that they both died was the same day that I was to be sent to see if Hitomi is the one. Both of them were meant to die, that was the way Fate had written it. But Queen Serenity never told Hitomi of the prophecy, she didn't want Hitomi to be the one and have to suffer through so much, but it seems that it was all in vain.  It is believed that Hitomi may be the Phoenix that they've been searching for, and I'm to protect and help her through her toughest challenge, even if it may mean death then so be it." she finished, leaving an eerie silence in the room then she began again, "I befriended Hitomi and we comforted each other through those first few months. I was there to witness Hitomi's powers emerge and grow, I saw the pain she had to go through, the blame, her reaction towards the sight of death, the coldness after being found, the loss of love. Oh how I wished I could help her more give her more comfort through her problems, but the friendship I had to offer wasn't enough. She needs someone to teach her how to love again, not the love of a rule to her people or friends but the love of a girl to her family, love to one of the opposite gender of the same age," she stated the last part in a whisper.

"But tell me about her disappearance, what happened?"

"Well a week before she disappeared, the ruler of Zaibach and his soldiers came for talk of a peace treaty. One of his generals was a man named Dilandau," at the name Van paled as though he had seen a ghost, but Hope seemed not to notice and continued, "He was truly a monster, when you looked into his eyes you could see the lust for blood in them, his love for war. Hitomi knew instantly that he was not to be trusted. The way he looked at her was truly frightening; it was as though he could see right through her, see who and what she was. She watched him closely through their whole visit. On the night that they were to leave she disappeared, though no one noticed till the next morning. We still don't know where or how she disappeared. All we know is that whatever happened to her was something that could truly shake her strong, cold walls. She began to have nightmares after she returned, waking up each night for a whole year screaming and in cold sweat, she jumped at any action or movement near her, not trusting anyone anymore, not even me…," Hope sobbed quietly her silver bangs covering her closed eyes.

"Dilandau, if he worked for Dornick when Hitomi was 5 and appeared to be 17 then how would he have been 17 during the Destiny War? It's just not possible!" Van burst out, Hope had a thoughtful look in her eyes, turning them more silver than blue, at the statement.

"Yes, it is possible, now that you think about it," she finally replied her eyes going back to their normal blue silver tinted color, "Zaibach was know for its powerful sorcerers and still is, if they wanted to preserve Dilandau's age at 17, then it's most likely possible since Dilandau was never really human, just a Monolack created to take human form." This would have made sense since Monolacks, which were rarely seen after the Winged Wars (name for the wars between the draconians and atlantians), were creatures that lurked in the shadows of the night and if captured could be formed into whatever the capturer wanted. They never aged after being captured and were always loyal to their master. In Dilandau's case he was formed into a blood thirsty monster in human form.

"Do you think that it was Dilandau that took her?"

"That theory was already tested, the whole of Anatopia was searched after her disappearance but nothing was found. Zaibach also let us search them and she was still missing."   

"When you say all do you also mean Dragon Mountain?" asked Van.

"We we never thought that that's where they could be, all this time that that's where they've been, that never came up, I must go we just might have to cancel that trip into Dragon Mountain after all, and anyway Merle's gotten into Hitomi's study," groaned Hope, listening to Merle's sneaky thoughts.

"It's not bad is it?" Van asked.

"Oh it wouldn't be if Hitomi hadn't hidden her book on Atlantis in there, I've got to stop her before she finds it and reads it. She's not meant to even touch that book,"

"Why not?"

"It shows things, unwanted and disturbing things, past, present, or future. People who have touched it have gone into commas and still haven't come out of them and the ones that have woken up are always seeing things and are also known to go crazy. I must go, please watch over Hitomi, it won't be long, I'll send a maid in to check in on her soon and then you can leave. See ya…" she turned to look at Hitomi one more time and noticed that she was crying. "That's odd, Hitomi hasn't cried once since her mother's.., could she be seeing her mother right now?" Hope asked in no one in a whisper, but loud enough for Van to hear. "I must go, Hope said sadly," and with that silver lights began to swirl around her and in the blink of an eye the silver lights as well as Hope were no where to be seen.

'But who is supposed to be the Dragon' thought Van to himself.

'It's obvious isn't it' came Hope's voice then an airy laugh.

 ~IN HITOMI'S MIND WHILE THEY WERE TALKING~

'I finally did it,' thought Hitomi, looking at her self, (she has the armor on), 'But where am I' she asked herself looking around her for the first time. The area was completely black, and Hitomi was floating in the middle of it all.

"You're in the Dream World Hitomi," came an oddly familiar voice. "It's been so long since I've seen you, you have grown into a beautiful young lady, no wonder Van has grown to like you" the voice laughed and Queen Serenity's figure came out of a blinding white light.

"Mother! It can't be you, it just can't be." screamed Hitomi, completely shocked at what she was seeing.

"Oh but it is, darling. It's been 11 years, yet you still take after your father and not only in looks." Serenity laughed again.

"But how," whimpered Hitomi, for the first time in 11 years she looked helpless, not even when she was beaten did she let herself look helpless or scared.

"I have finally been given permission to come see you dear, oh how I've missed you," cried Serenity softly as she took Hitomi into her long, slender arms and hugged her tightly.

"I I've missed you too mother," Hitomi whispered into her mother's hair, hugging her mother just as tightly if not more.

"But Hitomi, there is another reason that I'm here," replied Serenity while stepping back to get a better look at her daughter. "I know that you're going into Dragon Mountain, so I've come to prepare you for the worst. Don't give me that face Hitomi," she cried as Hitomi's face suddenly became cold, "You may not like to but you've got to let others in, you've got to ask for help sometime or another, you can't depend on yourself all the time," she cupped her hands on both of Hitomi's cheeks and made Hitomi's green eyes look into her blue-green ones. 

Looking away, Hitomi whispered harshly, "I've prepared myself all that I need to, I have no fears, that was in the past, I've left it all behind me,"

"But you haven't. The memories of what happened two years ago still plague you, you're still afraid. Let me show you," and with that she place her right hand on Hitomi's forehead causing Hitomi's eyes to become unfocused.

~Flash~

A dark cave, evil red eyes.

~Flash~

Hitomi began to shake unwillingly.

~Flash~

A man no creature, silver hair, red eyes. Whip, cracks, pain, blood.

~Flash~

"Stop," Hitomi whispered.

~Flash~

Daggers, blood, pain yet silence, she couldn't scream, she wouldn't.

~Flash~ 

"Stop," she said louder.

~Flash~

Long black hair, grey cladded skin, dark, evil black eyes, grey wings, smell of death and blood, a Gargoyle!

~Flash~

"Stop!" screamed Hitomi falling to her knees and holding her head.

"See Hitomi, you're not ready, not yet. Please just listen to me let me help you," begged Serenity also going down on her knees and taking Hitomi's head on her lap. She noticed hot tears falling down Hitomi's face and wiped them away. "Hitomi it's ok to want to be strong and independent, but you mustn't close out the people who truly care about you. Let Hope, Lisa, and your father help you, let Merle and Van help you, they all do care even if you don't." seeing that the tears kept coming Serenity knew what her daughter was thinking, "Hitomi you didn't kill me, you couldn't have done anything you were young. I was meant to die that day, I knew I would. I'm just sorry I didn't tell you about the Prophecy I wanted to protect you, you shouldn't have to go through such pain."

"But mama I was weak, I let him kill you and Hope's mother too," cried Hitomi, truly sounding like a child, tears still coming out of her emerald green eyes. "It was all my fault, all my fault." she kept repeating over and over again.

"Listen to me Hitomi it wasn't you fault, you couldn't have done anything, you must understand that," she said more forceful than she had intended. "I must go now Hitomi, but I will return to help soon, we will train in your dreams every night for the next week, goodbye my little flaming bird," with those loving words Queen Serenity disappeared and Hitomi slept soundly for the first time in 2 years.


	8. journey

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while, I just didn't have time to work on the story, I'm thinking about starting another one too but I'm not sure. Dumb school though, it has to ruin everything. Well here is chapter 8, I hope you enjoy it. Bye

_____________________________________

**~Last Time on NOT WHAT IT SEEMS~**

"Listen to me Hitomi it wasn't you fault, you couldn't have done anything, you must understand that," she said more forceful than she had intended. "I must go now Hitomi, but I will return to help soon, we will train in your dreams every night for the next week, goodbye my little flaming bird," with those loving words Queen Serenity disappeared and Hitomi slept soundly for the first time in 2 years.

_______________________________________

Chapter 8

Hitomi woke up the next morning feeling much refreshed. She looked at the small bed on the ground next to her bed and noticed that Hope's wolf form wasn't there. 'I wonder if she's in her room.' thought Hitomi. Whenever Hope felt like staying in her human form for the night, she would sleep in the room next to hers. (on the other side of Hitomi's, not the side as Van's. Van's is on the right hers is on the left) As if on cue Hope came into her room still in her human form with a large pitcher of ice cold water, that Hitomi had a feeling she was going to use on her if she was still asleep. 

She heard Hope whisper "Bummer," under her breath before gasping, "Hitomi! You're awake without me having to wake you up, I don't believe it. We need to celebrate!"

"Ah shut up or that water will be going on you instead of me," she replied slightly annoyed.

Catching the playfulness in her voice Hope answered back innocently, "Why no Hitomi, don't think such a thing, I just thought you might be thirsty, so I took it upon myself to get you some nice cold water to drink,"

"Well my DEAR Hope, I'm just not thirsty thank you, so if you don't mind, could you leave so I could get dressed so I won't have my head chopped off for being LATE!"

"I'm going, I'm going, and I just wanted to say that your father wants you to wear a dress to breakfast...," 

'I can just take it off later, or make an illusion of myself wearing one,' thought Hitomi.

"... and not take it off later or make an illusions, he wants you there as you are, not some picture." Hope finished, smirking.

"OUT," hissed Hitomi, her eyes turning completely red from anger. Hope ran out dodging flying objects and laughing the whole while.

"He'll pay someday, I swear it on my deathbed, making me wear a dress, oh he'll pay," she seethed to herself.

'Oh hush now Hitomi, and listen to your father,' came her mother's stern voice, causing her to jump slightly.

"Why's everyone against me," Hitomi screamed, causing Teresa, who had just come in to look at her strangely.

"Talking to yourself again Hitomi?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Ugh, shut up and what do you want." she demanded stubbornly.

"Just came to make sure you were listening to your father's orders, which you are not, it seems."

"Who died and made him king," she cried out.

"Your mother's father," Teresa laughed and left the room closing the door behind her.

"Idiots," Hitomi mumbled while going through her large closet, 'trying' to find a dress before giving up and decided to use a back up dress, which she kept handy so her father could never yell at her for forgetting. She waved her hand across her body and a floor length white dress appeared. It had long flowing sleeves, a green sash tied around her waist, and a pair of matching white shoes. 'How am I supposed to walk in these,' she thought. 

'Try,' came Hope's still laughing voice.

"Ugh!" was all she could say, while she checked to make sure she still had her pendent around her neck and brushed her tangled up hair.

"Hurry up Hitomi," came Merle's voice as she knocked on her door.

"I'm coming," she shouted and opened the door following Merle to the breakfast room. Two guards bowed and opened the large wooden doors for them. When they entered, Hitomi noticed Merle give Hope a quizzical glance and Jason and Van gave her understanding looks, she gave Merle a confused look before understanding. "That's Hope, Merle," she whispered as Merle sat down beside her, "She decided to stay in her human form, she's part of the Wolf Spirits tribe." She had a feeling it was already explained to Van and Jason, but what bugged her was the look in Van's brownish red eyes. It was as if there was something deeper that he knew about Hope that neither of them would tell her.

"Oh," was Merle's only answer, her blue eyes holding an understanding look. Suddenly Merle looked over at Jason, whose eyes hadn't left Hope since she had sat down, "I think Jason's in love," she laughed to Hitomi and Lisa, who had just come and sat down next to Merle. They both just smiled and then laughed when Hope caught him staring at her. They both turned their gaze back to their food and blushed.

"Lovebirds," snickered Lisa, causing everyone at the table to start laughing.

"Shut up," Jason mumbled then noticed Van staring at Hitomi and gave him a knowing look which caused Van to also start blushing. The rest of the meal went uneventful, except for Merle's questions about Hope. 

After everyone finished Hitomi stood up and announced, "Everyone who's going with me to Dragon Mountain will be training nonstop all day, so follow me," as she began to walk out the room she eyed Van and Jason wearily then turned and left to change 'Too bad I don't have to keep that dress on all day after all,' she thought happily.

When they approached the training arena Lisa went to get the troops for a long day of endless and tiring training. Meanwhile Hope was explaining everything that was going to happen to Van and Jason, and Hitomi was setting up the training field with various dangerous traps and illusions. After that she got out the weapons and waited for all the soldiers to arrive.

"Troops, pay attention," she shouted, all the men got into straight lines and listened to what she had to say. "Today and the next 6 days you will go through nonstop training to prepare you for the worst, you will train from sunrise to midnight, you will only be given three 10 minute breaks each day to eat and rest so I suggest you use them wisely. This may seem crazy and uncalled for, but this is strictly your choice, any man that's not up to it can back out know, no one is forcing you to do this." Yet no one seemed to want to back out, they were all too loyal to their princess and country to want to turn chicken and leave. "Believe me troops, when I say this I mean it, you'll need every single bit of training you can squeeze in and more, what you'll see in Dragon Mountain will be beyond what your imagination could ever conjure. You'll meet dragons, gargoyles, (Hitomi mentally shuddered at the word yet no one but Hope, Lisa, and Van noticed.) trolls, golems, monolacks, gryphon's, goblins, werewolves, and other creatures you'll wish you never laid your eyes on. So train good and hard and I wish you all good luck. Start training!" she shouted, with those words all the soldiers trained hard all day barely getting a chance to rest. Hitomi spent most of her time training Van and Jason, who she noticed were better than she thought them.

At the end of the day they went to bed dead tired and slept soundly that night. Van and Jason, who were not used to Hitomi's killing training had a hard time getting up the next morning but were determined to show this over confident princess how strong they were. Before any of them knew it, the 7 days were over and all had improved their skills tenfold and Van's improved to where they were almost equal to Hitomi's, which gave her even more reason to hate him. The morning after the 7th day everyone was up at dawn and packing their bags with the few things Hitomi had told them to. 2 hours after sunrise the 2000 men on horses galloped out of the palace walls and through the cities and towns to the country and nearer to Dragon Mountain with Hitomi at the front with her stallion Windracer.  She had had him since she was 6 and rode only him and no other horse.  He was a pure black thoroughbred stallion with a muscular build and an ever blacker mane; he was able to out run any living being in all of Gaea.  

As they went through the cities and towns people ran to the streets with baskets full of flowers and tears in their eyes and cheered their troops and princess on, throwing flowers into the air to show their support and hope for the new recruits.  Hitomi could see Darn and Iris running after them and screaming for Hitomi to come back soon. 

Van and Jason were impressed by the love the people showed toward their princess and the loyalty of the men as they followed her into the dangerous mountains. Hope brought her horse beside theirs and shouted to them so she could be heard over the hoof prints (they're near the front, ahead of the soldiers but a few feet behind Hitomi so no one else could really hear them talking) "You know, all theses men volunteered for this so they could help to protect their princess, they all love her dearly and will do anything for her, even willingly die at her hands. They'll never turn on her, not for life itself. Such loyalty you'll never find in troops for their monarchs. Watch Hitomi, you'll learn much about her through this journey," she said so only Van could hear her.(her horse is right beside his) All Van could do was nod and look at Hitomi's fragile looking form ahead of him, thinking about what he had seen only a week ago. 'I wonder if she knows that I know her secret, she looks so tired I wonder why,' he thought to himself.

'I doubt she knows, she would have asked by know, she's not one that likes to beat around the bush you could say. She likes to get straight to the point and not wait to find evidence. The book on Atlantis might have shown her enough to make her suspicious, but she probably doesn't know.' came Hope's reassuring voice. 'Van while we're there we must search the mountain, look in any caves that seem suspicious or any other place you might think of. They could still be there so we must be prepared. The king knows and is very worried. Keep your eyes open at all times.  Hitomi doesn't know this and I don't think we should tell her, I've also noticed how tired she seems and that doesn't seem natural, I'm sure she gets enough sleep at night or I think….' They rode in silence after that.

'Hope, listen to me, this is Queen Serenity,' a whisper like voice called.

'Your majesty?!'

'Yes, now listen, I haven't much time. Hitomi won't be at her best when you start, I want you to watch her for me. She's been training from sunrise to midnight everyday and I've been training her in her sleep as well, she hasn't gotten any rest at all this whole week. What you seen now is an illusion to keep anyone from noticing, you and Van are the only ones that have noticed this. When she goes in there she'll be very venerable and will need your help nonstop, watch her please little one I'm worried about her, she doesn't look very well.'

'I will your highness,'

'Thank you Hope, this is a nightmare come true for her and I still don't think that she's ready, tell Van if you need to, just keep her safe. I hate it being this way but she mustn't die yet, Fate has plans for her and I have to deliver this message. I wish she would just stay at the palace where it's safe, but there's nothing I can do, watch her and protect her please, I love you both so much. Good bye child of Nanakia,' she sobbed lightly and her voice left altogether.

**~BACK TO VAN WHILE IN HITOMI'S ROOM 7 DAYS AGO~**

(This is when Van finds Hitomi unconscious in the old training room and takes her to her room where Hope explains everything to him.  These are his thoughts about it all and what he does through the whole week)

'Wow,' Van thought trying to digest everything Hope had had just told him. 'The Dragon though, did Hope mean me?'

'Took you long enough,' Hope laughed into his head once more. 'Yes you are the Dragon and are prophesized to fall in love with the Phoenix and help her against all evil.'

'Those she know?'

'Yes she does, that's what makes her so made, that she's going to fall in love with a stuck up selfish king, I guess that she hasn't found true love yet.  She's been trying so hard to find someone she can truly love so that she wouldn't have to fall in love with you, but she seems to have lost or never found that kind of love.  You should have seen her face when she found out about the prophecy and that you were the Dragon, I should think that she would have tortured you to death and laughed at your pain if you were in the room with her that day, yet she may still like to do that to this day.'

'Thanks for your reassurance,' he thought to her bitterly.

'You're welcome, oh and the maid should be there in a few minutes, I'm tying Merle to her bed right now so she can't get into anything else so I've got to go.  Bye.'

'Great,' he thought as he sunk deeper into his chair, then something caught his eye.  It was Hitomi's pendent that Hope had taken off Hitomi neck and laid on the night stand next to the bed. 'I wonder what that is,' he asked as he reached out to touch it, the moment his fingers touched the blood red crystal flashes of Hitomi's past came to him.  Hitomi sneaking into the Viona. (I don't know if I spelled it right, but it's the leviship that Zaibach uses to leave Anatopia) being found by Dilandau, brought to Dragon Mountain, being shackled by the wrists from the ceiling, being starved and whipped till knocked unconscious, falling asleep in pools of her own blood every night, the horror in her eyes after seeing a complete copy of herself except evil, being beaten for her defiance, never looking weak or helpless, being attacked by Gargoyles, using her powers to destroy her twin and escape, and wondering around for days till found by the royal soldiers.  

'What was that?' he gasped once his vision was cleared.  He quickly retracted his hand away from the pendent.

'That was her past, while she was kidnapped,' Queen Serenity sadly replied.

'There was so much pain though, how?!' Van screamed all of a sudden felling very protective of Hitomi.  He could feel his heart torn to a million pieces but didn't know why.

'She went through so much more than what you just saw, all that was merely a glimpse, she still hasn't recovered.'

'I wish I could help her,' Van whispered, felling sad yet unbelievably mad at the pains she had to go through.

'There's so much you can do but for now just protect her and look out for her, stay at her side no matter how much she pushes you away.  Good bye for now Van,'

Van reached out and lovingly stroked Hitomi's forehead and noticed how she flinched at his touch, 'She went through so much, how did she make it, I swear it on my life that I'll protect you to my grave,' he vowed and kissed her lightly on her cheek before the maid knocked on the door and motioned for him to leave.  He glanced back at Hitomi one more time before turning to leave, yet if he had looked a second more he would have noticed the small smile that had slowly formed on Hitomi's lips.

Van fell asleep once his head hit the pillows, he was completely wiped out from all that had just happened and still needed time to take everything in.  The next morning he woke up early and just sat there thinking for hours until Jason knocked on his door calling for him to come down for breakfast.  He got out of bed and went to the bathing room 'This I'll be an interesting day,' he smirked to himself.

"Good Morning Van, did you sleep well?" came Hope's soft voice once he sat down at the dinning table.  He was wearing an airy long sleeved white shirt and black pants with a red strip going down the side of each leg. (like the clothes that the prince wears in the Little Mermaid.) His raven black hair still as unruly as the day before.

"Fine thank you, but I was wondering…," before he could finish his question Jason came in and sat down.

"How's everyone this morning," he greeted in an all too overjoyed voice, "and may I ask who this lovely lady is?" he asked staring at Hope yet not knowing that it was her.

Hope's silvery blue eyes sparkled more than usual as she reintroduced herself, "I'm Hope, you would know me as the wolf Hope, this is merely my human form since I'm part of the Wolf Spirits tribe," 'Is he always this annoying,' she mentally asked Van.

'Yes,' was his only answer.

"Well how come Van doesn't seem surprised at this, why?" he asked, jealousy evident in his voice.

"I already explained it to him and here come Hitomi and Merle, ah there's Lisa as well," 'Thank the Goddess of Gaea,' she sighed causing Van to chuckle.  He then noticed Hitomi come in and couldn't stop gaping at her beauty.  Her long sandy brown hair came down to her mid-back giving her a golden aurora, she was radiating with beauty even though she didn't try, the dress just added more to her appearance.  She whispered something to Merle who had a confused look on her face and then gracefully sat down in the seat across from him. 'Wow,' was the only word that came to thought.

'Falling for her even more I see,' Hope laughed earning a death glare from Van.  Once everyone had finished eating Hitomi stood up and told them to follow her. 'Great just what I need a full day of training, why did I say yes?' he sighed. 

'Because you love her,' 

'Ugh stay out of my thoughts Hope,'

'Sorry, gosh, just get your friend to stop staring at me, it's really getting annoying.'

'Once he starts there's no stopping him,' he smirked and followed Lisa and Jason to the training arena while Hitomi went to get changed.  They spent the whole day training and his bones and muscles were aching, what surprised him was how Hitomi could train harder than he did and still look as though she was full of energy. 'I bet it was an illusion, she's probably as tired as me if not more,' he thought to himself as he collapsed onto his bed.

'You're the first one to notice without someone having to tell you, I'm impressed,' Hope's voice replied.

'Would you stop doing that?  It's getting rather annoying.  Go bug Merle or Hitomi, Please!'

'I can't they're already asleep,'

'Well I would like to sleep too so good night!' and with that he closed their link and fell asleep.  The whole week spun by him, waking up with every muscle and bone aching, training and getting them to ache even more, then going to bed with them aching two times more.  He was proud at how much his skills had improved through the week to where they were almost as good as Hitomi's, but what made him mad was that she seemed as though she was full of energy and got tons of sleep each night even though he doubted it. 'Probably another illusion,' he told himself before falling into a deep sleep.  The next morning he woke at dawn and packed his bag.  King Aaron stood at the palace gates to see them off and thanked Van again for agreeing causing Hitomi to give him a look that said 'Once we're out there I'll make wish you had never seen my face,' and gallop off with the soldiers behind her.  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Youhan shaking his head sadly and Merle crying and waving to their quickly disappearing forms.

**~BACK TO ****NORMAL**** VIEW~**

After galloping hard all day they came to a large open field that came before the forest in which the mountain laid in the middle of, Hitomi stopped Windracer and the soldiers followed suite, by this time it was a bit before sunset.

"All right men, we're going to set up camp here and in the morning I'll place each of you in a different part of the mountain, you must survive in there for 14 days and find your way back to this clearing where Hope, Lisa, or I shall meet you.  So set up your tents."  she shouted before going to set up her own tent.  Once she was done she went into the forest with a group of her best soldiers to search for food while Hope set up the fire with some help from Van and unwanted from Jason, and Lisa went around to see how the soldiers were doing.

**~HITOMI IN THE ****FOREST****~**

As she walked through the darkening forest Hitomi forced herself to stay calm, 'There's no one here, Dilandau is gone, the Gargoyles aren't even out yet, God calm down Hitomi!' just then a twig snapped behind her making her jump around, her bow ready to kill.  Two deer jumped out of a nearby bush and before they could get away two arrows were already making their way through their hearts. 'Wow that was easy.' she thought as she made them levitate (float in mid air) and took them back to camp.  By the time she arrived Hope had the fire made and ready to cook back the catches.  Looking around Hitomi noticed that the soldiers she had taken with her were all back safe and each had caught at least one animal.  

"Hello Hitomi, so what do you have?" Hope asked as she added some sticks to the fire.

"Two bucks, but strange you'd think that they would have been closer to the heart of the forest instead of the outskirts.  I wonder what's there to scare them away," she replied not noticing the worried look in Hope's eyes. "Come on lets get these cooked so we can all eat and get some sleep, it'll be the most we'll have for the next 2 weeks,"

"Ugh, don't remind me, how did you get this idea into your thick head I'll never know but I guess I'm gonna have to stick with ya all the way whether I like it or not huh?"

"Sure do so come on and help me or we'll never eat tonight."

"Shut up," Hope mumbled as she sat on a log to help.  They spent an hour cutting up the meat and setting up poles to hang it from so it could cook.  Hitomi got all the soldiers to line up to get their meal.

Once they were all finished she started giving out orders, "Flanders, Jaggers, Vent, Dalgard, and Merlock, I want you to grab any scraps of left over meat and bones and take them as far from the camp as you can, I don't want any Werewolves catching the smell and thinking of us as food.  Abrams and you four I want you to go gather more wood for the fire get enough to last us all night, we can't let the fire go out at all.  You twenty men go feed the horses.  I also want you men to keep watch at different sections of the camp tonight," she yelled pointing at fifty of her best soldiers, "I want you to switch out with each other every two hours, if you hear anything suspicious I want you to get me right away don't dismiss it as nothing remember expect the unexpected and do not, I repeat do not fall asleep during your turn.  The rest of you get your supplies together and make sure you pack some meat because unless you catch some that'll be the only meat you'll get for the next 14 days.  You'll also have no horses with you so you'll have to travel light.  Now move out," and with that all the soldiers went to their assigned task. 

Hitomi went over to where she had tied Wildracer to a nearby tree and took off his saddle and griddle letting him move around to stretch his legs.  Then she whispered a spell causing some golden sparkles to appear and disappear leaving a pail of oats for him to eat.  "Eat up boy, you'll need it," she whispered into his ear as she took out a brush and began to lovingly brush his black coat unaware of Van watching her from his near by tent.

'She seems so calm right now, I wonder what she'll do once we get to the mountain itself, I have to protect her I promised I would and I will,' he thought to himself before unrolling his sleeping bag and going to sleep.  An hour later everyone had turned in except for those watching out.

****Hehe sorry for taking so long to update I just had this really hard project to do and didn't have that much time to finish it.  I would really love it if you guys would send me some suggestions all are welcome and most will most likely be used, so pppplease I beg you on my knees help me I need some ideas and thank you to all of those you have helped me so far, especially JoJo and Storyteller.  I want to thank you guys for all your support and the next chapter will be up as soon as I can get some more details for it.  Thanks again and happy early Valentines Day.  Bye!! ^_^


	9. New feelings

Hi everyone, here's my new chapter I hope you like it. Thanks to everyone who gave me tips. Well enjoy!!!

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Hitomi went over to where she had tied Windracer to a nearby tree and took off his saddle and griddle letting him move around to stretch his legs. Then she whispered a spell causing some golden sparkles to appear and disappear leaving a pail of oats for him to eat. "Eat up boy, you'll need it," she whispered into his ear as she took out a brush and began to lovingly brush his black coat unaware of Van watching her from his near by tent.

'She seems so calm right now, I wonder what she'll do once we get to the mountain itself, I have to protect her I promised I would and I will,' he thought to himself before unrolling his sleeping bag and going to sleep. An hour later everyone had turned in except for those watching out.

Hitomi got up 2 hours before dawn, she pulled down her tent and bagged it, then set it beside her other bag. After that she went to a nearby lake to wash her face. When she finished she placed her hand into the water and began reciting an enchantment making her eyes and the water her hand touched to turn golden the whole time. She then walked back to the horses and whispered, "Facere tuus cibus nam illa est quid est ad cena hodie," causing a pail of water and another of oats to appear in front of each of the 2005 horses. When they had all finished eating she began to whisper, "Nunc omnis discedo ad migrant tuus casae," while touching the nearest horse to her and within seconds each of the horses except her own, Hope's, Van's, Jason's, and Lisa's disappeared and would automatically reappear in their own stall in the stables. After that was done she started a fire and put some extra meat from the night before with some water into a pot to make broth.

By the time the task was done it was already dawn and she noticed Lisa and Hope's forms begin to move in their tents. 'Lazy idiots,' she thought to herself as she began to walk through the rows of tents and shout for the soldiers to wake up.

'Shut up Hitomi, we're just not used to waking up at ungodly hours of the day as you are,' Hope thought back to her as she got out of her tent, her voice still sleepy. She ran a hand through her silver hair to straighten it out a bit then went to the lake and washed her face with Lisa right behind her. 

"Everyone eat up then put up your tents, we'll be heading out as soon as everyone's done so hurry." Hitomi yelled out as she began serve broth to the men.

"Hey where did all the other horses go," Jason asked as he walked up to her to get a bowl noticing that all but 5 horses were gone.

"I sent them back to their stable," was Hitomi's only reply ignoring his quizzical look. The men already knew about some of Hitomi's special powers and were used to things disappearing from one place and reappearing in another, and Hope could only smirk at his stupidity. Jason just sighed and took his food. 

After she finished serving the men Hitomi walked over to where she had left her tent and bags and picked up a black belt and put it around her waist. The belt had various daggers and weapons attached to it, all were small enough so they didn't get in Hitomi's way when she moved. Near the weapons were small pouches which had different colored powders in them. A rope was attached to right side of the belt and the royal Anatopian sword on the left side. She then picked up her bag of arrows and slung it around one shoulder and her bow around the other. After that she walked over to Windracer and pulled his griddle over his face and his saddle over his back and then closed the straps, finally she attached a bag to each of his sides.

Once everyone was done she ordered the men to line up in order, "Alright everyone, I'm going to cast a spell that will send each of you to a separate part of the mountain where you will stay for 2 weeks, good luck, and I shall say one more time 'expect the unexpected'," she shouted and then she walked up to the first man in the line, touched his forehead, and whispered a spell causing a silver phoenix with a golden outline to appear on each of their foreheads and then with a burst of green light they all disappeared. By the looks on the men's faces Van could tell they weren't afraid but were anxious to prove themselves to their princess. After all the men were gone Hitomi just stood there staring at where they were standing only moments ago. Hope walked up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder trying to give her support, reassuring her that the men would be ok. But Hitomi just shrugged it away, walked over to Windracer, and jumped onto his back.

"Come lets go," she ordered and waited for them to saddle their horses and mount before turning her own and heading deep into the forest, the others following right behind her. 

"But Hitomi how are you going to make sure that they're going to be ok?" Lisa asked as she brought her own brown mare beside Windracer.

"I've formed a link with each one, so if they're in trouble I have, I guess you could call it, a 6th sense that will let me know. The links aren't very strong, just enough to let me know what they're feeling and doing at a certain moment." she replied before tapping Windracer at his sides to get him to speed up. They rode on silently for the rest of the day. An hour before sunset she stopped in a small clearing that was surrounded by trees that would completely hide them from any possible enemies. She ordered Jason and Lisa to get some logs for the fire and Hope to go hunt something to eat. She completely ignored Van and walked over to the horses to feed them and let them settle down for the night. Van was about to ask her why she was ignoring him when Hope, knowing that it would only lead to another argument, grabbed his arm and led him after her. 

Hitomi felt a ping of jealousy deep in her heart for a reason that she couldn't explain and just shook her head and went to feed the horses. 'How could I be jealous I don't give a care about him, he's just another one of those freaking men who know nothing but themselves. Ugh why am I even thinking about him, I hate him. Anyway why should he want me? He has Hope, and he seems to like her a lot since he spends so much time with her and is always laughing when she's around. Shut up Hitomi! Why are you even thinking of that?! Ugh there has to be some way to get out of this marriage' Sighing she pushed her golden bangs out of her eyes and set her mind to finishing her task. 

Yet Hope as far away as she was could feel this jealousy deep in Hitomi's heart. Through the previous week she had watched Hitomi closely to see how she reacted around Van. She noticed that no matter how much Hitomi said she hated him, she had accepted him and gotten used to his presence even though she hadn't noticed it herself. Whenever Hitomi let someone into her heart she fought with heart and soul to keep them safe, even if she didn't know it. During that week Hitomi poured everything she had into helping Van, let alone the men, improve their skills to their utmost maximum. 

'Hitomi why can't you just trust your heart again, you would have some many less troubles to deal with. It was never your fault,' Hope thought to herself, making sure that neither Van nor Hitomi could hear her. 'I must teach Van how to listen and reply to Hitomi's thoughts and feelings, it just may make things a lot easier on me. I'm sure it would work since she has the blood of the phoenix in her. This may be very interesting.'

"Van keep an extra eye out, tell me if you see anything suspicious or if you hear screaming, there are some of the men near here I can smell them (she still has her good hearing and smelling senses even though she's not in wolf form at the moment) Don't let them see you."

"Ok, wait, hold on, do you hear something?" he whispered before turning around and finding himself face to face with a hideous monster. It had strange red eyes, a spiked brow, grey cladded skin, and a nauseating odor. It raised it's tail and sent it flying into Van's stomach making him crash into a nearby tree.

"It's a Gargoyle, hurry get up and get your sword out!(it's right after sunset)" Hope screamed as she jumped out of the way right before it could send its enormous tail into her side. She unsheathed her sword and slashed into its arm trying to divert its attention from Van to give him a chance to get up and unsheathe his own sword. "Go for the chest, it's most venerable there and don't show it fear for it feeds off it." she yelled as she pulled her sword out of its arm and sent it into one of its mighty wings. Van quickly got up and took his sword out using Hope's attack as a que for his own. While the Gargoyle body slammed Hope into a tree, pulled her sword out of its wing and threw it into the ground, he snuck up behind it and pushed his sword deep into it's humped back and quickly withdrew it causing purplish colored goo that looked a lot like blood to come out. The Gargoyle backed up away from Hope and let out a roar of pure agony. Its eyes turning an even darker shade of red, it stood up high onto its hind haunches and used its large, deadly claw to scratch Van across the chest, pushing him onto the ground. Just before it could tear off his head a recovered Hope sent a large burning white ball of energy into the Gargoyle's stomach throwing it off of Van and into a large rock a few feet away. Breathing heavily(notice she sent a LARGE ball of energy, so it took a lot of her own energy) she pulled her sword out of the ground and quickly ran to his side to help him up when she noticed the 3 long scratch marks across his chest that were beginning to bleed heavily.

"Van! Are you ok?" she whispered helping him into a sitting position against a tree trunk.

"A little sore, but other than that fine," he coughed, his voice sounding winded.

"Liar, you're loosing a lot of blood, we've got to get you out of here."

'Oh, we need Hitomi, I can't finish it off by myself and Van's in no condition to fight, agh. Hitomi! Please get over here we need your help.'

'What what's wrong?' came Hitomi's worried voice.

'We've encountered a Gargoyle, and Van's been struck down, I've already used a lot of my own energy so I won't last much longer, please hurry!' Hope practically screamed.

'I'm on my way, keep him at bay until I get there.'

'Ok,' Hope replied before taking a deep breath and standing up. The Gargoyle was beginning to recover from the blast and slowly stood up on its hind legs. 'Here we go,' she sighed and charged at it doing a flying leap into the air hitting him square in the chest and did a back flip landing a few feet away from him her sword ready to strike. 'Ugh, none of my attacks are hurting him, why won't he die?!' 

"He will, you just have to know how to kill him," a shadowed figure replied from the branch of a nearby tree. The person jumped out of the tree and landed noiselessly onto the forest floor.

"Hitomi? Is that you?" Hope shouted to the cloaked figure. At the name the Gargoyle's face held a sign of recognition that Van noticed from his position and with a look at the figure so did they.

"Yes," she replied taking her hood off then turning her attention back to Gargoyle, yet not without a worried glance at Van. "You remember me, don't you?" she smirked coming closer with each step until she was only a few feet away from the Gargoyle her eyes turning to a glowing golden color, "The pains and torture you put me through. The whippings and beatings, starving me to no end? You never thought that had I survived did you, you never thought I would even make it out of the mountain? Ha! You thought I was a mere weakling that couldn't survive on her own. Well no longer. Did you ever wonder how I escaped?" she asked, her eyes turning a deeper golden color with every passing second. "Well I'll tell you how, I turned all those burning pains and feelings of anguish into raw energy, power that allowed me to destroy everyone of your pitiful kind. Yet I was too weak to last much longer, but I survived and have been waiting for the day that you and I would meet face to face once again. I've been training and I've finally done what you thought was impossible!" she hissed before green and golden lights began to surround her transforming her into her ultimate form. She noticed the fearful look on the Gargoyle's face. "I've reached the power that was spoken of in the prophecy and I've come to finally destroy you." 

"You may try, but I assure you that you won't get any farther than your useless, friends," the Gargoyle finally spoke, the fearful look leaving his grotesque face leaving an even uglier smirk.

"I'll make you eat those words!" Hope shouted, beginning to walk up behind Hitomi.

"Stay out of this Hope, this is my fight and mine only. I've been waiting for so long for my revenge and it's finally within my grasp, you shall not get in my way, I won't let you." she yelled back, forming a force field around her and the Gargoyle.

"Hitomi, what's going on, it's not the real you that's talking, you never liked killing or believed so much in getting revenge, you've changed and I don't like it at all," Hope replied, shocked.

"But my dear Hope, if you only knew. Too bad I don't have time to tell you," she laughed evilly then turned back to the Gargoyle. "Are you ready Exander? You'll not live to see tomorrow."

"We'll see about that," Exander replied before charging at Hitomi.

"Hitomi no, don't do this," Hope screamed running towards the force field, but when she thrust all her weight into it she just got thrown back with twice as much force next to Van. "What is she doing," she whispered.

"I don't know but I want to find out," Van replied. Breathing painfully he steadied himself and tried to stand up using a large rock. 

"Van be careful, you've lost a lot of blood already," she warned helping him up letting him lean on her shoulder before turning to the battle between Hitomi and the Gargoyle. "She's changed, that's not the Hitomi I grew up with. Sure she fought in wars and saw death, but she never really liked it, at least I hope not. 

"I just hope she makes it out ok," Van whispered pressing his hand onto his chest trying to stop the blood.

"Me too," she sighed sadly. 

"Can you do better than that," Hitomi smirked doing a flip over Exander and kicking him in his back.

"Well then destroy me, come on kill me." he laughed standing in a position that she would get a clear shot at him.

"Gladly,"

"Hitomi, no you can't do this, you've never killed anyone in cold blood, don't start now," Hope screamed.

Hitomi strayed a look Hope's way, at first Hope saw regret and hopefulness but when she was Van leaning on Hope, not knowing that he was injured, her eyes immediately clouded with anger, betrayal, and hurt, the last two of which were rarely seen on her face, "Shut up and stay out of this." Hitomi yelled then ran at Exander pulling out two daggers and using them to slash him in the sides, but he didn't wince or anything, he only used his tail to grab hold of her and began to squeeze her so tight that her breathing was cut off. Then he threw her hard onto the ground and kicked her hard in the side, throwing her body a few feet across the ground and into a rock causing her forehead to begin bleeding. She quickly got up, wiping the blood leaking from the side of her mouth, and kicked him hard in the stomach. She hit him hard in the back of his legs causing him to fall down to his knees. Backing away a bit she prepared to give him the final blow when all of a sudden she dropped to her knees and grabbed her head as if she was in pain. She soon began to scream in pure agony.

"Hitomi what's wrong, get up he's going to kill you if you don't," Hope cried, tears beginning to form in her eyes. She was about to run towards her when Van placed his hand on her shoulder turning her gaze on Hitomi as she began to stand back up.

"No, you won't get out I won't let you," Hitomi screamed her voice in an odd tone, almost like it was two people's voices combined, her eyes turning into a deep red, and the blood red necklace around her neck began to shine black.

'That's strange, the phoenix stone is never supposed to turn black or else it means that the wearer's heart is no longer pure, something is truly wrong now, I can feel it. Please Hitomi, I know you're still in there, just answer me, I want to help you, I promised I would I intend to keep that promise!" she screamed, sorrow heavy in her heart.

'I'm trying Hope, I am, but she's so strong, it's hard to try and contain her. Ahh,' her voice lurking with pain, 'She's trying to get out, her power has grown so much stronger.'

'Who is Hitomi, Who?!' Hope asked. 'Hitomi! Hitomi!' she screamed when she got no reply. 

"What's going on, who's Hitomi talking to," Van asked worriedly, sorrow for her pain evident deep in his brownish-red eyes.

"I don't know," Hope whimpered her expression turning even more worried for her friend than before. Never before had she seen her friend in such pain, and never before had she not been able to help her when she needed it.

"No More, NO MORE!! I won't let you win, all you'll do is cause is pain, that's what you did, if it weren't for you the Destiny War wouldn't have started! I was too weak to stop you but NO MORE!" she screamed to someone that no one could see.

"What! No, it was Dornkirk who started the Destiny War and he's dead, I saw him die myself." Van whispered, shocked.

"You fool, it wasn't Dornkirk who started the war, he only helped to prolong it, the person who did start it was your friend right there," Exander smirked. Van just stood there speechless, but Hope could tell from Exander's eyes that he knew what was going on, he knew that this would happen, that Hitomi would break down like this.

"You, you did this to Hitomi," she accused not paying attention to his comment.

"I did nothing but provoke her," he laughed, "Your friend is in a very unstable state right now, I'm sure your pathetic, dead queen already told you, all that training everyday, and every night, the foolish queen thought that she could prepare her child from what is happening this very minute, Ha! She just wasted her time."

"Shut up I won't have you dishonoring my mother," Hitomi yelled, her clothes changing from her golden armor to a leather skin tight top and pants and then back to the armor. "I won't hear anymore from you, never again," and with that she raised her hand towards him letting an enormous blue sphere of energy erupt from her palm and shoot at him. "You thought you could let her out, but you've lost, it'll take more than that to beat me, as long as I live she'll stay captive." she hissed, her voice going back to its normal tone and her eyes going back to their golden color. 

"We'll see Princess or should I say Phoenix," he laughed before being disintegrated into millions of pieces and blown away in the cooling wind. Hitomi's eyes changed back to their green color before she fell to the ground unconscious, a green light surrounded her and the armor changed back to a white shirt long-sleeved with a black leather vest over it and black leather pants with knee high boots. The force field that surrounded her disapeared. 

"Come on let's get back to camp, we'll see what happened when she wakes up," Hope sighed to a still shocked Van. He slowly walked over to Hitomi's unconscious form and painfully but gently picked her up into his muscular arms. He was careful to avoid her many wounds. She looked so venerable and helpless tucked into the safety of his arms. They walked silently back to camp, never uttering a word about what had just happened.

When they walked into the camp they were met with Lisa and Jason's worried looks, "What happened!" Lisa demanded when she saw her leader, princess, and friend unconscious with cuts and wounds all over her body, and her future king bleeding from his chest.

"You'll find out when Hitomi wakes up, right now we have to clean her up and take care of her wounds. Jason start the fire and cook something to eat. Lisa go get some clothes, water, healing herbs, and bandages. Van could you place Hitomi in her tent?" Hope ordered, obviously tired by the nights events. Van went into the tent and gently placed Hitomi on some blankets. He walked out and let Hope in to change Hitomi into some loose fitting clothes so it would be easier to tend to her wounds. After she was finished she let him and Lisa in. Taking the things from Lisa she set them on the ground beside her and began to mix various herbs together. "Van, take some cloth and start cleaning the blood and dirt off her wounds. Lisa mix the Monibaone and Lisen together and rub them onto the wound on her head." she quickly told them before taking the mixture she made and began to apply it to the wounds as Van cleaned them up. He gently pushed away her bangs and began to clean up the scratches on her face. He could feel his heart break at the pained expression that was clear on her usually proud face, he felt like killing the person who did this to her all over again. If only he hadn't underestimated the Gargoyle, if he had only seen the claw they could've won and Hitomi wouldn't be in this position.

"It's ok Van it wasn't your fault, not many people ever meet a Gargoyle and live, they never stand a chance. For never before was there a monster as awful as a Gargoyle." she tried to calm his anger while bandaging up the wounds on Hitomi's arms.

"There was one before, Dilandau, he killed 1000s of humans and creatures." Van replied quietly, recalling all the deaths he had seen all in one year. But one question still bugged him, why had the Gargoyle said that Hitomi started the Destiny War.

"But he's dead," Lisa chipped in, finally understanding what they were talking about. Pushing her black hair out of her violet eyes she sat back inspecting the large scar on Hitomi's forehead. "There all done," she sighed.

"Good, all her other wounds are done as well. Now Van take your shirt off so we can take care of your wounds. Van listened and after a few minutes his chest was bandaged up, as well as any other of his and Hope's bruises. Standing up Hope walked to the door of the tent, "Come on let's go get something to eat, I just hope Jason didn't burn down the camp," Hope laughed sadly and walked out with Lisa right behind her. Van just sat beside Hitomi and held her limp hand in his callused hands, gently rubbing her soft palm. 

"I'm so sorry Hitomi I should of protected you in some way I could have saved all this pain, but no I was too weak," he whispered bitterly.

"You weren't weak, you never were," a weak voice replied.

Van quickly raised his head and could have sung with joy when he saw sparkling emeralds staring back at him. Not paying attention to what he was doing he quickly pulled her into a tight hug. At first he felt Hitomi stiffen, but after a few seconds relax and let him support her, for the first time in her life she let someone else be her pillar of strength, let someone else see her helpless.

She was scared by the warm feeling that quickly shot through her body like wildfire, the feeling of his skin against her own, his breath on the nape of her neck that sent a tingling sensation through her. Never before, since her mother's death, had she been held like that by someone and she was truly confused by why she didn't pull away and tear his head off for even touching her. They sat like that for what seemed like hours, she leaning onto his bare, muscular chest with her head laying on his shoulder, he with his arms around her holding her tightly, and his head buried in the nape of her neck.


	10. author's note

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Hi everyone, sorry i haven't updated in so long. I've just been really busy and have had a severe writer's block. I've also started writing a new story and i'll publish the first chapter soon. Don't worry i'm gonna continue this story 'cause it's my baby. hehe. ^_^


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